鼯 (wú) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

鼯

wú[wu2]Tone 2

flying squirrel

Guru Deep Dive

English · flying squirrel

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:20

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (the rat radical 鼠) is complex and dense, while the right side (吾) is structured in stacked horizontal tiers. Keep the left compact to leave room for the right.

1. Meaning

flying squirrel

gliding rodent

NounLiteraryBound morpheme#animals#mammals#nature

Sample Usage

鼯鼠
wúshǔ
flying squirrel

2. Sound

/[u³⁵]/Tone: 35

鼯

wúwu2

´(35)

=wú

Build the syllable

Step-by-step blending

Tone mark placement: Tone mark sits on "u" per main-vowel priority (a > e > o; in -iu/-ui the mark takes the second vowel).

Initial Consonant

Type: Glide (w)

Sounds like: Glide (w)

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Round lips tightly before gliding into vowel.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Lips rounded, back of tongue raised toward soft palate.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -u vowel group

Sounds like: u rhymes with 'oo' in 'boot'

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'oo'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T2 (35)

3 → 5 (35)

2nd Tone (Mid-Rising)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 2 starts in the middle register and rises smoothly to the top, exactly like asking 'Really?' in English.

Sandhi: When followed by another Tone 3 syllable, wú changes to a rising tone similar to Tone 2, though in standard compounds it usually pairs with a neutral tone in shǔ (wúshu).

👂

Listening trap: Do not confuse with the fourth-tone wù (wù), which drops sharply. This word rises.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Move your hand upward in a diagonal sweep from bottom-left to top-right, matching a questioning 'What?'

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 20 strokes

4. Components

Radical 鼠 · Rat / Mouse Radical (rodent, rat, mouse)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 鼠 (Indicates that this creature is a rodent.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 吾 (original sound: wú)

A rodent (鼠) that says '吾' (wú, meaning 'I/me') as it glides through the night air like a self-important aviator.

鼠 Left radical designating rodents
吾 Right phonetic component providing the sound 'wú'

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

18· Phonetic Root: 吾 (wú)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Combined from 鼠 (rat, indicating animal class) and 吾 (providing the phonetic sound wú), created to distinguish specialized gliding rodents from ordinary ground rats.

Semantic Evolution: Has consistently referred to the flying squirrel throughout historical zoological texts in Chinese flora and fauna classification.

Historically cataloged in traditional materia medica and natural history encyclopedias for its unique gliding membrane.

6. Sinosphere

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Imagine a tiny rodent (鼠) wearing pilot goggles, looking up at the sky and shouting 'WÚ!' (I!) right before it leaps off a branch to go flying.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

吾

wúsurname Wu; (old) I; myPhonetic Core (声旁)

语

yǔlanguage, speech+ 讠 (speech)

悟

wùto comprehend+ 忄 (heart)

晤

wùto meet socially+ 日 (sun)

Explore this family →

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

鼠(shǔ)

鼠 is just the common ground rat; 鼯 adds 吾 on the right to signify the flying variety.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

森林里有一种会滑翔的小动物叫[___]鼠。

Clue: wú

Common Learner Pitfall

Attempting to write the character from scratch without managing the high stroke count of the 鼠 radical on the left.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What animal does the character 鼯 represent when combined with 鼠?

Production: How do you write the character for the flying squirrel's first syllable (wú) using the rat radical?

鼯wúflying squirrel

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