草 (cǎo) has two main meanings: 'grass' (the plant or material) and 'draft' (of a document). For grass, 草地 (cǎo dì) refers to a grassy area (lawn/meadow), while 吸管 (xī guǎn) is a drinking straw — not the same as straw material. For draft, 稿子 (gǎo zi) and 稿件 (gǎo jiàn) are more common for written manuscripts; 草 alone is often used in compounds like 草稿.