蛛 (zhū): spider (bound form)

Meanings

1 spider (bound form)

Characters

蛛

zhū

spider

Examples

HSK 7-9

角落里有一只蜘蛛在结网。

Jiǎoluò lǐ yǒu yī zhī zhīzhū zài jié wǎng.

There's a spider spinning a web in the corner.

HSK 7-9

蛛网上挂满了露珠。

Zhūwǎng shàng guà mǎn le lùzhū.

The spider web was covered with dewdrops.

Tips

usage

蛛 is a bound form that doesn't appear alone in modern Chinese. It combines with 蜘 to form 蜘蛛 (spider), and appears in 蛛网 (spider web) and 蛛丝马迹 (spider silk and horse tracks = clues/traces).

Components

radical

虫 chóng

insect; bug

Left insect radical - originally a pictograph of a curled-up snake or worm, generalized in Chinese to cover all small crawling creatures including arachnids. Indexes 蛛 in the bug family alongside 蚁 ant, 蜂 bee, 蛇 snake, 蝶 butterfly. Spiders aren't insects biologically, but Chinese taxonomy lumps them under 虫.

phonetic

朱 zhū

vermilion; cinnabar red

Right 朱 supplies the sound, identical pinyin zhū with no drift. Same phonetic family: 株 tree-trunk, 珠 pearl, 诛 to execute. 朱 itself originally pictured the red core of a tree - here it carries no meaning, just the sound clip for the spider word 蜘蛛.