How to Write 蚍 (pí) — Meaning “large ant”

Imagine a very large ant (蚍) standing next to a tiny ant and saying "Compare me to that one!" The right side 比 means "compare," so you can remember that 蚍 is the ant that likes to compare its size. This also connects to the famous idiom 蚍蜉撼树 (an ant trying to shake a tree), where the ant overestimates its strength.

Write the left radical 虫 with six strokes: first the left part (vertical, horizontal, horizontal, vertical), then the bottom dot and a final short stroke. The right part 比 has four strokes: both halves are written like 匕 (short left-falling strokes), but the left side of 比 is slightly narrower. A common mistake is making the two 匕 halves too wide or uneven.

蚍 means "large ant" and has 比 (bǐ) on the right, while 虮 (jǐ) means "louse egg" and has 几 (jǐ) on the right, and 虰 (dīng) refers to a type of dragonfly-like insect and has 丁 (dīng) on the right. Visually, the right-side components are different: 比 vs 几 vs 丁, and their meanings are completely unrelated.

蚍 is rarely used alone; it appears in the classical compound 蚍蜉 (pí fú, "large ants") and the idiom 蚍蜉撼树 (pí fú hàn shù), meaning "an ant trying to shake a huge tree" -- a metaphor for overrating one's own strength. This idiom comes from a poem by the Tang dynasty writer Han Yu, and it is still used today in formal or literary contexts.

Common words containing 蚍 include: 蚍蜉 (pí fú) — large ant; 蚍蜉撼树 (pí fú hàn shù) — an ant trying to shake a huge tree; to overrate one's own strength; 大蚍蜉 (dà pí fú) — Large ant.