How to Write 曱 (yuē) — Meaning “part of the word for cockroach (dialectal)”

Imagine a cockroach's body as a flat rectangle (the 曰 part) and its long antenna sticking out as the vertical stroke inside. This visual helps you link the shape to the insect. The character looks like a simple bug drawing.

First write the outer box like 曰: left vertical stroke, then the top horizontal and right vertical as one stroke, then two inner horizontals. Finally, add a straight vertical stroke from top to bottom in the center. A common mistake is making the center vertical too short or crooked — keep it centered and straight.

曰 is a flat rectangle with no internal strokes and means 'to say' or 'sun'. 曲 has two internal vertical lines and means 'song' or 'curve'. 曱 has only one internal vertical line and is used only in the dialectal word for cockroach.

This character is extremely rare and appears almost exclusively in the Cantonese/dialectal word 曱甴 (yuē zhá) meaning 'cockroach'. It is not part of standard Mandarin or HSK vocabulary. You might see it in informal writing or pest-control signs in southern China.

Common words containing 曱 include: 曱甴 (yuē zhá) — cockroach (Cantonese/dialectal); 捉曱甴 (zhuō yuē zhá) — to catch cockroaches; 曱 (yuē) — part of the word for cockroach (dialectal).