How to Write 沃 (wò) — Meaning “Fertile / To irrigate”

Imagine a farmer pouring water (氵) onto young plants (夭) to help them grow. The shape of 夭 looks like a person with arms stretched out, and adding water makes the soil fertile, so you can think "water + young plant = fertile soil."

The left radical 氵 must be written with three dots in a smooth curve, and the right part 夭 has a short top stroke followed by a longer horizontal line. A common mistake is to make the top of 夭 too wide or to forget the slight curve in the water radical's third dot.

沃 (wò) means 'fertile' or 'to irrigate,' while 㳄 (xián) is an obsolete character meaning 'saliva' or 'flowing water' and is rarely used today. 氿 (guǐ) refers to a dried-up river or spring and is also uncommon; visually, 㳄 has a different right component (欠) and 氿 has 九 (nine) instead of 夭.

沃 appears in words like 肥沃 (féi wò) for fertile soil and 沃野 (wò yě) for fertile fields, often describing agricultural land in written or formal contexts. It is not in the HSK vocabulary, so learners may encounter it mainly in geography or literature about farming and nature.

Common words containing 沃 include: 肥沃 (féi wò) — Fertile (soil).; 沃土 (wò tǔ) — Fertile soil; 沃野 (wò yě) — Fertile fields.