How to Write 蛸 (shāo) — Meaning “Octopus / Mantis egg case”

Picture a little octopus (虫) that looks like a small "shawl" (肖 sounds like "shaw") wrapped around a rock. The top part of 肖 looks like a little head and the bottom like tentacles. This helps you connect the insect radical with the sound and the image of an octopus.

Write the radical 虫 first (strokes: vertical, horizontal, vertical, horizontal, dot, then the final horizontal). Then add the right side 肖: start with the top small three strokes (vertical, dot, dot), then the bottom 月 (month radical). Keep the left side narrow and the right side wider to balance the character. A common mistake is making the 虫 too wide—it should be about one-third the total width.

蛸 (shāo) means octopus or mantis egg case, while 蚯 (qiū) is part of 蚯蚓 (earthworm) and 蚰 (yóu) appears in 蚰蜒 (house centipede). Visually, 蛸 uses 肖 on the right, whereas 蚯 has 丘 (hill) and 蚰 has 由 (reason). All share the 虫 radical, but the right-side components give different sounds and meanings.

蛸 is rarely used alone; it appears in words like 桑螵蛸 (mantis egg case, used in traditional Chinese medicine) and 蛸类 (octopuses, a scientific term). In everyday conversation, people usually say 章鱼 (zhāngyú) for octopus instead of 蛸. The character is most common in medical or biological contexts, especially referring to the dried mantis egg case used as a remedy.

Common words containing 蛸 include: 桑螵蛸 (sāng piāo shāo) — Mantis egg case (used in Chinese medicine); 螳螂蛸 (táng láng shāo) — mantis egg case; 蛸类 (shāo lèi) — Octopuses.