How to Write 笤 (tiáo) — Meaning “broom”

Imagine a bamboo (竹) broom that you use to "call" (召) dust together into a pile. Picture yourself saying "tiáo" as you summon the dirt with the broom. This links the sound and meaning to the visual image of bamboo and calling.

When writing 笤, first write the bamboo radical as two separate parts: left side (撇,横,点) then right side (撇,横,点). Then write 召: start with the top 刀 (撇,横折钩,撇) and finish with the bottom 口 (竖,横折,横). A common mistake is making the bamboo radical too wide or mixing the stroke order of 召.

笤 (tiáo) means broom and has the bottom part 召. 竽 (yú) means a reed instrument and has the bottom part 于. 竿 (gān) means a pole or rod and has the bottom part 干. Visually, the bottom components are different, and each character has a completely different meaning related to bamboo objects.

笤 is almost always used in the compound word 笤帚 (tiáo zhǒu), meaning a whisk broom or small broom. It is not used alone. Culturally, 笤帚 are traditional cleaning tools often made from bamboo or sorghum, commonly seen in Chinese households for sweeping small areas.

Common words containing 笤 include: 笤帚 (tiáo zhǒu) — whisk broom; 小笤帚 (xiǎo tiáo zhǒu) — Small broom; 扫笤帚 (sǎo tiáo zhǒu) — to sweep with a whisk broom.