Chinese character for wood: 木 (mù)
The Chinese character for wood is 木 (mù). It means wood or tree and is one of the five elements in Chinese philosophy. It appears in 木头 (mùtou, wood) and 树木 (shùmù, trees).
How 木 is built
木 is a pictograph of a tree. The horizontal line is the branches, the vertical line is the trunk, and the two slanting strokes at the bottom are the roots. Doubling and tripling it gives 林 (lín, woods) and 森 (sēn, forest). As a part of other characters it marks things made of wood or plants, like 桌 (table) and 树 (tree). It is identical in both scripts.
木 mù · tree
- 十 — ten
- 一 — horizontal stroke
- 丨 — vertical stroke
- 八bā — eight
Origin hint: A tree (from the Make Me a Hanzi dataset; treat as a memory aid where history is uncertain)
How 木 is used
Before you use it as a tattoo or design: 木 is identical in both scripts; for 'tree' as a living thing, 树 is the everyday character.
Questions
What is the Chinese character for wood?
木 (mù) means “wood”.
How do you pronounce 木?
木 is pronounced mù.