How to Write 丸 (wán) — Meaning “pill; ball; pellet”

Imagine a tiny round pill with a dot on top—the dot is the radical 丶, and the curved line below forms the round body. Think of it as "a dot (丶) on a little ball" to recall that 丸 means pill or ball.

The stroke order is: first a left-falling stroke (丿), then a dot (丶), and finally a hook (乚). Common mistakes include writing the hook too long or placing the dot too far from the curve, which breaks the compact round shape.

丶 is just a single dot used as a punctuation mark or radical component, while 丷 is two dots often seen in characters like 兰. 丸 is a complete character with three strokes that forms a perfectly round shape, unlike the simple dot marks.

丸 appears in words for small round objects, especially food like 药丸 (pill), 鱼丸 (fish ball), and 肉丸 (meatball). In Chinese cuisine, these ball-shaped foods are common in soups and hotpots, and the character is widely recognized even though it is not part of the HSK vocabulary.

Common words containing 丸 include: 药丸 (yào wán) — pill; 鱼丸 (yú wán) — Fish ball; 肉丸 (ròu wán) — meatball.