How to Write 泞 (nìng) — Meaning “Muddy.”

Imagine walking through a muddy road — the water radical 氵 on the left shows it's wet, and the right side 宁 looks like a person stuck in the mud with arms raised. Picture someone saying "I'm stuck in the nìng (mud)!" to recall the pinyin.

The left radical 氵 is three dots written as a single fluid stroke, not separate dots — the first two are short and the third is a curved upward flick. The right side 宁 has a top dot, then a horizontal cover, and below it the 丁 part; make sure the 丁's vertical hook is straight and does not extend too far left.

泞 specifically means muddy, with the water radical plus 宁. 㳄 (spit, drool) is extremely rare and has a different right component (欠). 汊 means a branch of a river or a fork in a waterway, with 叉 (chā) as the phonetic; visually, 汊 has 叉 on the right, while 泞 has 宁.

泞 appears almost exclusively in the word 泥泞 (ní nìng), meaning muddy or slushy, often describing roads or ground after rain. You might see it in weather reports or travel warnings, for example: "雨后道路泥泞" (after rain, the road is muddy). It is not a high-frequency character, but useful for describing poor road conditions.

Common words containing 泞 include: 泥泞 (ní nìng) — Muddy; 泞滑 (nìng huá) — Muddy and slippery.; 泞路 (nìng lù) — Muddy road..