丛 (cóng): thicket

Meanings

1 thicket
2 cluster
3 clump
4 collection (of books)
5 (measure word) for clusters or clumps of plants

Characters

丛

cóng

cluster / thicket / collection

Examples

他藏在树丛里，一动不动。

Tā cáng zài shùcóng lǐ, yīdòngbùdòng.

He hid in the thicket without moving.

花园里种了好几丛玫瑰。

Huāyuánlǐ zhòng le hǎojǐ cóng méigui.

Several clumps of roses were planted in the garden.

Tips

usage

丛 functions both as a noun (a cluster/thicket: 丛林, jungle) and as a measure word for clumps of plants: 一丛花 (a clump of flowers), 一丛草 (a clump of grass). As a suffix it forms compound nouns: 丛书 (series of books), 丛林 (jungle/thicket).

Components

radical

一 yī

one; ground line

Bottom 一 is the one-stroke radical, here functioning as a ground line — the earth on which the two figures stand. It's the indexing radical of 丛 by Kangxi convention. Visually it makes a tidy compound ideograph: 'people gathered on the ground,' giving the modern meaning of cluster, thicket, crowd.

phonetic

从 cóng

to follow; from

Top 从 is two 人 figures in single file, originally 'one following another.' Supplies the sound — cóng straight through — and a faint semantic hint of plurality / clustering: a group walking close together. Same phonetic and image family: 丛 itself, 纵 vertical, 怂 to incite.