How to Write 糙 (cāo) — Meaning “Coarse”

Think of eating brown rice (糙米): it is so coarse that you have to "造" (make) a big effort to chew it. The left 米 reminds you it is rice, and the right 造 sounds like "cause" — the coarse texture causes trouble.

Write the left radical 米 narrow, changing the last two strokes (撇 and 捺) into dots to save space. The right side 造 is written with 土 on top and the walk radical 辶 below, and a common mistake is making the right side too wide or forgetting the 辶.

糙 (coarse) has rice radical 米 and right side 造, while 粹 (pure) also has rice radical but uses 卒 on the right. 粼 is completely different: it uses the water radical 氵 on the left and 粦 on the right, meaning clear ripples of water.

糙 is used to describe rough textures, such as 粗糙 (rough) for surfaces, and 糙米 (brown rice) in food. It can also describe a person's tough or unrefined manner, like 糙汉子 (a rough man), and is common in daily conversation about texture and personality.

Common words containing 糙 include: 粗糙 (cū cāo) — rough; coarse; crude; 糙米 (cāo mǐ) — Brown rice; 糙汉子 (cāo hàn zi) — Rough man.