枯

Mandarin · pinyin kū

Meanings

  1. (of plants) withered
  2. (of wells, rivers etc) dried up
  3. (bound form) dull; boring
  4. (bound form) residue of pressed oilseeds
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Characters in this entry

枯
kū · dried out, withered, decayed
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1 · ku1

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1character link16same-tone records
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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 7 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

fu1

Cantonese word readings for 枯. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

character

  1. (of plants, etc.) dry; withered
  2. (of wells, rivers, etc.) dried out
  3. (of muscle) withered; decayed
  4. boring; uninteresting; dry
  5. (dialect) dregs
  6. (traditional Chinese medicine) partial paralysis
  7. a surname

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack