虫

See also 蟲

Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Etymology

A poisonous snake, from which this character originated.

Pictogram (象形): a snake.

The character originally represented a type of poisonous snake, while the derivative 蟲 represented worms and insects (or insect-like things). 虫 eventually came to represent worms and insects as well, and the character 虺 was created to represent the original meaning.

Han character

虫 (radical 142 虫+0, 6 strokes, cangjie input 中一戈 (LMI), four-corner 5013₆)

1. worm
2. insect
3. (archaic) a poisonous snake
4. KangXi radical 142

References

• KangXi: page 1076, character 19
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 32804
• Dae Jaweon: page 1545, character 7
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 4, page 2833, character 1
• Unihan data for U+866B

Descendants

強, 虹, 蚌, 蚯, 蛐, 蛻, 蜀, 蜂, 蜇, 蜥, 蝗, 蝠, 蝴, 蟄, 蟬, 蟲, 蟹, 蠍, 蠟, 蠣, 蠶

---

Cantonese

Hanzi

虫 (traditional 蟲, jyutping cung4, wai2, Yale chung4, wai2)

---

Hakka

Hanzi

虫 (traditional 蟲, POJ chhûng, Guangdong tsh'ung² [Meixian], fui³, ch'ung² [Hailu], ts'ung², fi³ [Siyan], ch'ung² [Kwangtung], Hagfa Pinyim cung2)

References

• CCDICT (Chineselanguage.org)
• Academia Sinica - Hakka-English Dictionary
• Lau, Chun-fat. Hakka Pinyin Dictionary (Chinese). Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1997 (Chinese IME supplement) ISBN 962-201-750-9.

---

Japanese

Kanji

虫 (grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• On: ちゅう (chū), き (ki)
• Kun: むし (mushi)
• Nanori: む (mu)

Compounds

• 害虫 (gaichū)
• 甲虫 (kōchū, kabutomushi)
• 昆虫 (konchū)
• 幼虫 (yōchū)
• 寄生虫 (kiseichū)
• 爬虫類 (hachūrui)
• 毛虫 (kemushi)
• 虫歯 (mushiba)
• 虫眼鏡 (mushimegane)
• 虫酸 (mushizu)
• 虫食い (mushikui)
• 泣き虫 (nakimushi)
• 弱虫 (yowamushi)

Noun

虫 (hiragana むし, romaji mushi)

1. an insect; a bug
2. a person living for only one thing
3. a thought which is in the deep in mind

---

Korean

Hanja

虫
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 훼, 충 (revised: hwe, chung, McCune-Reischauer: hwe, ch'ung, Yale: hwey, chwung)

• Name (hangeul): 벌레 충, 벌레 훼()

---

Mandarin

Hanzi

虫 (traditional 蟲, pinyin chóng (chong2), huǐ (hui3), Wade-Giles ch'ung², hui³)

Compounds

• 虫草
• 虫吃牙
• 虫害
• 虫胶
• 虫媒花
• 虫情
• 虫牙
• 虫眼, 虫眼儿
• 虫蚁, 虫蚁儿
• 虫灾
• 虫子