艾

ài
#1,289 most
frequent character
Chinese mugwort or wormwood, moxa

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

艾 has 艹, plants, as its meaning part and 乂 yì as the sound part. It first meant the mugwort plant, under both readings. Read ài, the sense 'to stop' was borrowed for its sound; read yì, so was 'to punish'.

艾 as a component in other characters

sound2 characters
哎砹

Ask DeepSeek

Same Characters, Different Readings

艾Ai4
surname Ai
艾yì
variant of 刈[yi4], variant of 乂[yi4]

Homophones

HSK 1
爱ài
to love, affection, to be fond of
碍ài
to hinder, to obstruct, to block

Your word lists

Sign in to add this word to your private lists.