蚯

qiū

noun

Meanings

蚯蚓能松土，对花园有好处。

Qiūyǐn néng sōng tǔ, duì huāyuán yǒu hǎochù.

Earthworms loosen the soil and are good for the garden.

雨后，许多蚯蚓爬到了地面上。

Yǔ hòu, xǔduō qiūyǐn pá dào le dìmiàn shàng.

After the rain, many earthworms crawled onto the ground.

usage

蚯 has no independent meaning. It only ever appears in 蚯蚓 (earthworm); you will never see it standing alone.

radical

虫 chóng

insect; worm; bug

The bug-and-worm radical, marking 蚯 as a small crawling creature. It is what ties this character to 蚯蚓, the earthworm.

phonetic

丘 qiū

mound; hillock

Gives the sound: 丘 qiū lends 蚯 its exact reading qiū. The 'mound' meaning does not carry over; it is purely the phonetic part.

蚯 qiū