木 (mù; tree or wood)

木 is a pictograph. The ancient form of 木 looks like a tree. The top section is supposed to be tree branches, the middle section is the trunk, and the lower part represents the roots of the tree. Therefore, 木 means tree or wood. As a radical, 木 is often placed on the left side of a compound, as in 松（sōng； pine tree） and 桃 （táo；peach tree）. 木 also appears in other positions within a compound such as 桌（zhuō；table） and 床 （chuáng；bed）. When we go to a village, we often see trees; therefore, the Chinese character for village is 村 (cūn). Further, trees are often full of birds who have gathered to rest. Thus character 集 （jí；to gather or to collect） has two radicals; the top one means bird and the bottom is 木.