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

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

Etymologically derived, is a compound character. Its radical form (wide) appears in many related characters such as (zài, again), (zuì, (before an adjective or verb) to the highest degree), (nèi, inside).

Native 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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbmào xiǎnto take risks6
noun/verbgǎn màoto catch cold3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
mào fànto offend
mào mèibold
mào chōngto feign
mào yānto discharge smoke
jiǎ màoto impersonate
mào pái huòfake goods
mào páifake
gǎn mào yàomedicine for colds
mào xiǎn jiāadventurer
mào shirash
mào míng dǐng tìto assume sb's name and take his place (idiom)
仿fǎng màoto counterfeit
yǎn mào jīn xīngto see stars
huǒ mào sān zhàngto get really angry
mào shi guǐreckless person
52
Total compounds
67
As first character
13
As last character
19
As middle character

appears in 52 compound words: 67 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

xiǎn
0.66335,788 co-occurrences
chōng
0.49111,610 co-occurrences
fàn
0.47411,079 co-occurrences
jiǎ
0.45910,452 co-occurrences
gǎn
0.43713,661 co-occurrences
yān
0.4101,763 co-occurrences
仿fǎng
0.4062,202 co-occurrences
miào
0.4011,860 co-occurrences
pāo
0.3971,482 co-occurrences
mèi
0.387450 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

bùchuǎimàomèiHSK 7+

to venture to; presume; to take the liberty of

phrase
dǐng míng mào xìngHSK 6+

to pretend to be sb else

phrase
huǒmàosānzhàngHSK 3+

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

phrase
jiǎmàowěilièHSK 7+

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

phrase
màomàoshīshīHSK 4+

rash; hasty

adjective
màomíngdǐngtìHSK 6+

to impersonate; pretend to be someone

phrase
mào dàbùwěiHSK 3+

to act in defiance of universal condemnation

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个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 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

Wǒ huàn shàng le yánzhòng de gǎnmào.

I'm suffering from a bad cold.

Tatoeba

你看,那边正在烟,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

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

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 52 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 冒 (mào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation mào: 猫 (cat (CL:隻|只[zhi1])), 毛 (hair), 矛 (spear), 茅 (reeds), 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 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.