How to Write 蔫 (niān) — Meaning “withered / listless”

Picture a grass plant (艹) that has wilted and is hanging down like a sad face, with the bottom part 焉 looking like two drooping leaves or a tired person's shoulders. You can also think of the sound "nee-an" as in "knee an' wilted" to link the pinyin with the meaning.

The top grass radical 艹 should be written with four strokes: horizontal, then two verticals, then a bottom horizontal—do not make it too wide. The bottom part 焉 has many horizontal lines; common mistakes are mixing up the order of the vertical strokes or forgetting the dot at the end. Keep the whole character balanced and not too tall.

蔫 means withered or listless, while 莿 (cì) means thorn or barb—it has the grass radical plus 刺 (thorn), so it is about sharp plants. 菐 (pú) is a rare character also with the grass radical but a different bottom, and it is not commonly used. Visually, 蔫 has a complex bottom with many horizontal strokes, whereas 莿 clearly shows the 刺 component on the right.

You often hear 蔫 in everyday talk about flowers that have wilted (花蔫了) or people who feel tired and lack energy (他蔫了). It also appears in the idiom 蔫头耷脑, which describes someone with drooping head and low spirits, and in 蔫坏, which means someone is sneakily bad in a quiet way.

Common words containing 蔫 include: 蔫了 (niān le) — withered / faded; 蔫头耷脑 (niān tóu dā nǎo) — dejected / listless / drooping; 蔫坏 (niān huài) — sneakily bad / deviously wicked.