How to Write 槀 (gǎo) — Meaning “Withered or straw”

Picture a tall tree (高) made of wood (木) that has lost all its leaves and looks dead and brown. This image connects the components to the meaning of withered or dry straw.

Write the top 木 first, keeping it slightly narrow. Then write the bottom 高 carefully: dot, horizontal, left vertical, horizontal, then the inner box, and finally the lower enclosure. A common mistake is making the top 木 too wide or forgetting the dot in 高.

槀 has a top-bottom structure (木 on top, 高 below), while 棉 and 棋 are left-right structures with 木 on the left. The right part of 棉 is 帛 (silk), and the right part of 棋 is 其. Their meanings are completely different: 槀 means withered, 棉 means cotton, and 棋 means chess.

槀 is rarely used in daily life; it appears mostly in classical texts or as a variant of the more common character 槁 (kǎo). You may encounter it in literary words like 槀木 (dry wood) or 枯槀 (withered), often describing desolate or old things in poetry.

Common words containing 槀 include: 槀木 (gǎo mù) — Dry wood; 枯槀 (kū gǎo) — withered; emaciated; 槀草 (gǎo cǎo) — Straw or dried grass.