冒 (mào): to emit, to give off, to send out (or up, forth), to brave, to face, (bound form) reckless

冒 (mào) is a Chinese character meaning “to emit.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 日 (structural) and 目 (semantic). It ranks #1217 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 冒 is a compound character. Its radical form 冂 (wide) appears in many related characters such as 再 (zài, again), 内 (nèi, inside), 册 (cè, book).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to emit
  2. to give off
  3. to send out (or up, forth)
  4. to brave
  5. to face
  6. (bound form) reckless

Etymology & Origin

冒

pictophoneticThis character is a compound form.

Decomposition: ⿱日目 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Practice writing 冒 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 冒

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
冒险verbmào xiǎnto take risks6
感冒noun/verbgǎn màoto catch cold3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
冒犯verbmào fànto offend
冒昧adjectivemào mèibold
冒充verbmào chōngto feign
冒烟verbmào yānto discharge smoke
假冒verbjiǎ màoto impersonate
冒牌货nounmào pái huòfake goods
冒牌verbmào páifake
感冒药gǎn mào yàomedicine for colds
冒险家nounmào xiǎn jiāadventurer
冒失adjectivemào shirash
冒汗mào hànto sweat
冒名顶替phrasemào míng dǐng tìto assume sb's name and take his place (idiom)
仿冒verbfǎng màoto counterfeit
眼冒金星verbyǎn mào jīn xīngto see stars
火冒三丈phrasehuǒ mào sān zhàngto get really angry
54
Total compounds
69
As first character
13
As last character
19
As middle character

冒 appears in 54 compound words: 69 as the first character, 13 as the last, and 19 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 冒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

险xiǎn
0.58911,966 co-occurrences
充chōng
0.4843,870 co-occurrences
犯fàn
0.4753,692 co-occurrences
假jiǎ
0.4523,484 co-occurrences
烟yān
0.432621 co-occurrences
感gǎn
0.4154,593 co-occurrences
妙miào
0.395620 co-occurrences
泡pào
0.391494 co-occurrences
仿fǎng
0.386738 co-occurrences
骗piàn
0.38315 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

不揣冒昧bùchuǎimàomèiHSK 7+

to venture to; presume; to take the liberty of

phrase
顶名冒姓dǐng míng mào xìngHSK 6+

to pretend to be sb else

phrase
火冒三丈huǒmàosānzhàngHSK 3+

to fly into a rage; to flare up; to lose one's temper

phrase
假冒伪劣jiǎmàowěilièHSK 7+

fake, forged, counterfeit and poor-quality; counterfeit and shoddy (generally speaking)

phrase
冒冒失失màomàoshīshīHSK 4+

rash; hasty

adjective
冒名顶替màomíngdǐngtìHSK 6+

to impersonate; pretend to be someone

phrase
冒大不韪mào dàbùwěiHSK 3+

to act in defiance of universal condemnation

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个冒字的意思与它的部首有关。

zhè gě mào zì de yì sī yú tā de bù shǒu yǒu guān .

The meaning of the character "冒" is related to its radical.

StheadlineFeb 2026

...杜拜棕榈岛酒店疑被飞弹碎片击中 入口起火冒浓烟・有片

. . . dù bài zōng 榈 dǎo jiǔ diàn yí bèi fēi dàn suì piàn jī zhōng rù kǒu qǐ huǒ mào nóng yān yǒu piàn

... The Palm Dubai Hotel is suspected to have been hit by missile fragments, and the entrance is on fire and smoke is emitted

東森新聞Feb 2026

调皮!高职生拿起子拆行动电源 冒烟起火吓坏

diào pí ! gāo zhí shēng ná qǐ zǐ chāi háng dòng diàn yuán mào yān qǐ huǒ hè huài

Naughty! Higher vocational students picked up the sub-dismantling power bank and were frightened by smoke and fire

新西兰中文先驱网Feb 2026

又是冒充银行的电话,奥克兰老人被骗1.5万纽币...

yòu shì mào chōng yín háng de diàn huà , ào kè lán lǎo rén bèi piàn 1 . 5 wàn niǔ bì . . .

It was another phone call pretending to be a bank, and the old man in Auckland was defrauded of 15,000 New Zealand dollars...

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Feb 2026

...炮当糖果!母亲才转身几秒 广东女童“口中冒火烟”爆哭

. . . pào dāng táng guǒ ! mǔ qīn cái zhuǎn shēn jī miǎo guǎng dōng nǚ tóng kǒu zhōng mào huǒ yān bào kū

... Candy! The mother turned around for a few seconds, and the Guangdong girl burst into tears with "fire and smoke coming out of her mouth"

TvbsFeb 2026

抗癌神器来了!台中女骶骨冒罕见巨型瘤 3个月神速缩小

kàng ái shén qì lái le ! tái zhōng nǚ 骶 gǔ mào hǎn jiàn jù xíng liú 3 gè yuè shén sù suō xiǎo

The anti-cancer artifact is here! Taichung female sacrum suffered a rare giant tumor and shrank rapidly in 3 months

Tatoeba

烟从烟囱里冒了出来。

Yān cóng yāncōng lǐ mào le chūlái.

The smoke went upward through the chimney.

Tatoeba

我患上了严重的感冒。

Wǒ huàn shàng le yánzhòng de gǎnmào.

I'm suffering from a bad cold.

Tatoeba

你看,那边正在冒烟,那栋大厦一定是失火了。

Nǐ kàn, nàbian zhèngzài màoyān, nà dòng dàshà yīdìng shì shīhuǒ le.

Look at that smoke. That building must be on fire.

Tatoeba

他冒着生命危险救了我的命。

Tā màozhe shēngmìng wēixiǎn jiù le wǒ de mìng.

He saved my life at the risk of his own.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 目 component

Homophones — Characters pronounced mào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 冒 (mào) mean in Chinese?
冒 (mào) primarily means "to emit." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1217 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 冒 and 接?
冒 (mào) and 接 (jiē) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 冒 (give) vs 接 (receive).
How many strokes does 冒 have?
冒 is written with 9 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 冒?
The radical associated with 冒 is 冂 (wide). This radical appears in many characters related to wide.
What are the components of 冒?
冒 is composed of: 日 (structural), 目 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱日目 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 冒?
Common words with 冒 include: 冒险 (mào xiǎn, "to take risks"); 冒犯 (mào fàn, "to offend"); 感冒 (gǎn mào, "to catch cold"); 冒昧 (mào mèi, "bold"); 冒充 (mào chōng, "to feign"). There are over 54 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 冒 (mào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation mào: 毛 (hair), 贸 (trade), 貌 ((bound form) appearance), 猫 (cat), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 冒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 冒 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 冒 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.