How to Write 芴 (wù) — Meaning “Fluorene”

Imagine a patch of grass (艹) growing on a laboratory floor where a chemical spill of fluorene happened, and a sign says "勿" (do not) enter. This links the grass radical with the phonetic 勿 and the scientific context of fluorene.

Write the grass radical 艹 first with three strokes: horizontal, then vertical, then vertical, keeping it narrow. Then add 勿 with four strokes: left-falling, horizontal, horizontal, left-falling—make the two horizontal strokes parallel and shorter than the width of the grass radical to keep the character balanced.

芴 has the bottom part 勿 (wù), while 兹 has a bottom made of 幺 (silk) and means "this" or "now," and 艻 has the bottom 力 (lì) meaning "force" and refers to a type of grass. Visually, 芴’s 勿 has two horizontal strokes and two left-falling strokes, making it more complex than the simple 力 in 艻.

芴 is almost exclusively used in chemistry to name fluorene and its derivatives like 芴酮 (fluorenone) and 芴醇 (fluorenol). It is not part of everyday vocabulary and appears only in scientific texts, so learners rarely encounter it outside specialized contexts.

Common words containing 芴 include: 芴 (wù) — Fluorene; 芴酮 (wù tóng) — Fluorenone; 芴醇 (wù chún) — Fluorenol.