How to Write 蚁 (yǐ) — Meaning “Ant”

Imagine a tiny ant (虫) walking along a straight line, carrying a piece of food that looks like the letter 'Y' for yǐ. The right side 义 can be remembered as 'Yi the ant' — just think of a small insect named Yi.

Write the left radical 虫 narrow and tall, with the final dot placed neatly inside the bottom opening. The right side 义 starts with a dot, then a downward-left stroke, and ends with a right-falling stroke — make sure the strokes are balanced so the character is not too wide.

蚁 (yǐ, ant) uses the radical 虫 plus 义 (yì). 虬 (qiú) is a mythical horned dragon and has 虫 plus 丩 (jiū) — the right side looks like two crossing lines. 虮 (jǐ) means louse eggs and has 虫 plus 几 (jǐ) — the right side looks like a table or 'several'. Focus on the different right-side components.

蚁 appears mainly in words like 蚂蚁 (mǎ yǐ, ant) and 白蚁 (bái yǐ, termite). It is not a common standalone character in daily speech, but it appears in idioms such as 千里之堤，溃于蚁穴 (a tiny ant nest can collapse a thousand-li dam), teaching that small problems can lead to big disasters.

Common words containing 蚁 include: 蚂蚁 (mǎ yǐ) — Ant; 白蚁 (bái yǐ) — Termite; 蚁穴 (yǐ xué) — Ant nest.