吾 (wú): surname Wu, (old) I, my

吾 (wú) is a Chinese character meaning “(old) i.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 五 (phonetic) and 口 (semantic). It ranks #3021 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 吾 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 吃 (chī, to eat), 喝 (hē, to drink).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. surname Wu
  2. (old) I
  3. my

Etymology & Origin

吾

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿱五口 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Practice writing 吾 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
支支吾吾zhī zhī wú wúto hem and haw
支吾verbzhī wúto resist
吾辈pronounwú bèi(literary) we
维吾尔proper-nounwéi wú ěrUyghur ethnic group
世界维吾尔代表大会shì jiè wéi wú ěr dài biǎo dà huìWorld Uighur Congress
老吾老,以及人之老lǎo wú lǎo , yǐ jí rén zhī lǎoto honor old people as we do our own aged parents
吾尔开希wú ěr kāi xīÖrkesh Dölet (1968-), one of the main leaders of the Beijing student democracy movement of 1989
维吾尔人wéi wú ěr rénUighur person or people
新疆维吾尔自治区proper-nounxīn jiāng wéi wú ěr zì zhì qūXinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, capital Ürümqi 烏魯木齊市|乌鲁木齐市 (short name 新)
吾生也有涯,而知也无涯wú shēng yě yǒu yá , ér zhī yě wú yáLife is short, learning is limitless
老吾老,以及人之老,幼吾幼,以及人之幼lǎo wú lǎo , yǐ jí rén zhī lǎo , yòu wú yòu , yǐ jí rén zhī yòuto honor old people as we do our own aged parents, and care for other's children as one's own
维吾尔语wéi wú ěr yǔUighur language
支吾其词zhī wú qí cí(idiom) to talk in a roundabout way to cover up the truth
维吾尔族wéi wú ěr zúUyghur ethnic group
吾人wú rén(literary) we
21
Total compounds
24
As first character
14
As last character
62
As middle character

吾 appears in 21 compound words: 24 as the first character, 14 as the last, and 62 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

维吾尔人wéi wú ěr rén

Uighur person or people

phrase
维吾尔族wéi wú ěr zú

Uyghur ethnic group

phrase
支吾其词zhī wú qí cí

(idiom) to talk in a roundabout way to cover up the truth; evasive

phrase
支支吾吾zhī zhī wú wú

to hem and haw; to stall; to stammer

phrase

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

活动由新疆维吾尔自治区文学艺术界联合会主办。

huó dòng yóu xīn jiāng wéi wú ěr zì zhì qū wén xué yì shù jiè lián hé huì zhǔ bàn .

The event was organized by the Federation of Literary and Art Circles of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

少数派Sep 2026

“哀吾生之须臾,羡长江之无穷”这一诗句在这个场景下瞬间变得真实可感。

āi wú shēng zhī xū 臾 , xiàn cháng jiāng zhī wú qióng zhè yī shī jù zài zhè gè chǎng jǐng xià shùn jiān biàn dé zhēn shí kě gǎn .

In this setting, the line “I lament the fleeting nature of my life and envy the boundless flow of the Yangtze River” instantly becomes vivid and tangible.

少数派Aug 2026

东野圭吾小说的首部改编动画,没有多少推理元素,而是一则奇幻治愈故事。

dōng yě guī wú xiǎo shuō de shǒu bù gǎi biān dòng huà , méi yǒu duō shǎo tuī lǐ yuán sù , ér shì yī zé qí huàn zhì yù gù shì .

The first animated adaptation of a Keigo Higashino novel, it contains few elements of mystery and is instead a fantastical, heartwarming story.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

徐福将中国传统文化中“幼吾幼以及人之幼”的思想浸润于一餐一饭中,并最终以命相搏。

xú fú jiāng zhōng guó chuán tǒng wén huà zhōng yòu wú yòu yǐ jí rén zhī yòu de sī xiǎng jìn rùn yú yī cān yī fàn zhōng , bìng zuì zhōng yǐ mìng xiāng bó .

Xu Fu infused the traditional Chinese philosophy of “loving one’s own children and extending that love to the children of others” into every meal he prepared, and ultimately risked his life for it.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

前不久,我前往北京天桥剧场观看一部东野圭吾小说改编的音乐剧。

qián bù jiǔ , wǒ qián wǎng běi jīng tiān qiáo jù chǎng guān kàn yī bù dōng yě guī wú xiǎo shuō gǎi biān de yīn lè jù .

Not long ago, I went to the Tianqiao Theater in Beijing to see a musical adaptation of a novel by Keigo Higashino.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 口 (mouth) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 吾 (wú) mean in Chinese?
吾 (wú) primarily means "(old) i." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3021 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 吾 have?
吾 is written with 7 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 吾?
The radical associated with 吾 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 吾?
吾 is composed of: 五 (phonetic), 口 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱五口 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 吾?
Common words with 吾 include: 支支吾吾 (zhī zhī wú wú, "to hem and haw"); 支吾 (zhī wú, "to resist"); 吾辈 (wú bèi, "(literary) we"); 维吾尔 (wéi wú ěr, "Uyghur ethnic group"); 世界维吾尔代表大会 (shì jiè wéi wú ěr dài biǎo dà huì, "World Uighur Congress"). There are over 21 compound words containing this character.
Is 吾 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 吾 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 吾 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.