How to Write 鹬 (yù) — Meaning “snipe or sandpiper”

Imagine a bird (鸟) with an extremely long, sharp beak that looks like a spear (矛). The left part 矞 can be broken into 矛 (spear) and 口 (mouth) and a top part — picture the snipe using its spear-like beak to catch fish in its mouth.

Pay special attention to the left component 矞: it has many small strokes, including a top part like 冖, then 矛, then 口. A common mistake is writing the left side too wide — keep both sides balanced, with the bird radical on the right slightly taller.

鹬 (yù) has a complex left side 矞, while 鹞 (yào) has 䍃 on the left (like a jar shape) and 鹠 (liú) has 留 (meaning "stay") on the left. Visually, 鹬's left part contains multiple horizontal strokes and a "spear" element, unlike the others.

鹬 is rarely used alone in daily speech. It appears mainly in the idiom 鹬蚌相争 (the snipe and the clam fight), which warns that when two sides quarrel, a third party will benefit. This story is a classic Chinese fable about conflict and unintended consequences.

Common words containing 鹬 include: 鹬鸟 (yù niǎo) — snipe bird; 鹬蚌相争 (yù bàng xiāng zhēng) — the snipe and the clam fight (a metaphor for mutual conflict); 长嘴鹬 (zhǎng zuǐ yù) — snipe (bird).