麤

Formed by tripling the character 鹿 (deer; 11 strokes) — one placed above and two below — yielding 33 strokes in total.

The semantic logic follows the pattern of multiplied radicals: a herd of deer scattering in wild, uncontrolled movement evokes roughness, disorder, and lack of refinement.

33 strokes makes 麤 the character with the highest stroke count among all characters assigned in the Korean Hanja Proficiency Examination, including the top Special Grade (특급).

麤 is an extreme rarity in all traditions. It is classified as a byeokja (벽자) — an obscure, archaic character with virtually no living usage.

In Japanese it is technically preserved in its full form without simplification, but practical examples are essentially nonexistent, as simpler characters serve the same meaning.

추잡 (麤雜) — crude and disordered; coarse and mixed

추악 (麤惡) — rough and bad; coarse and vile

추솔 (麤率) — careless; hasty; rough in manner

麤 belongs to the same family of triple-radical characters as 龘 (three 龍) and 鱻 (three 魚), where visual accumulation enacts the meaning. Here the three 鹿 suggest a wild, ungoverned mass rather than the singular grace of a single deer.

Stroke count comparison within the triple-radical family:

鱻 (three 魚) — 33 strokes: fresh; vivid

麤 (three 鹿) — 33 strokes: rough; coarse

龘 (three 龍) — 48 strokes: dragon in motion

Among commonly catalogued Chinese characters, 龘 at 48 strokes surpasses 麤, but within the Korean Hanja examination system 麤 stands as the most stroke-heavy character on record.

Related characters:

粗 — coarse; rough (common modern equivalent, far simpler)

野 — wild; untamed

亂 — disordered; chaotic

雜 — mixed; crude

Variant forms all share the same meaning and reading:

麁 — early variant, 鹿 + 米 configuration

麄 — alternate historical form

觕 — variant using 角 (horn) as a component

None of these variants are in active use. All are archaic.