Translingual

Stroke order

Pictogram (象形) : a snake.

The character originally represented a type of venomous 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.

虫 is Simplified from 蟲 (elimination of 䖵) and 虫 is the simplified form of 蜀 that is used only as a character component.

Han character

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

1. Kangxi radical #142, ⾍ ‎(“insect”).

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

Chinese

Etymology 1

Etymology 2

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 蟲)

1. insect, bug

Readings

• Goon: じゅう (jū) (non-Jōyō reading)
• Kan’on: ちゅう (chū)
• Kun: むし (mushi)
• Nanori: む (mu)

Compounds

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

Readings

• Goon: け (ke)
• Kan’on: き (ki)

Etymology

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) むし [mùshí] (Heiban - [0])^[1][2]
• IPA^(key): [mɯᵝɕi]

Noun

虫 ‎(shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai kanji 蟲, hiragana むし, katakana ムシ, romaji mushi)

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

References

1. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
2. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3