(mèi): to conceal, dark

(mèi) is a Chinese character meaning “to conceal.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2306 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, sun. Its radical form (sun) appears in many related characters such as (, sun, day), (zǎo, early, morning), (shí, time, hour).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to conceal
  2. dark

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticsun

Decomposition: ⿰日未 (layout: left-right)

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

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
mào mèibold
ài mèivague
yú mèiignorant
ài mèi guān xìshady relationship
yú mèi wú zhīstupid and ignorant (idiom)
sù mèi píng shēng(idiom) to have never met sb before
méng mèiuncultured
shí jīn bù mèito pick up money and not hide it (idiom)
mèi xīnagainst one's conscience
sān mèiSamadhi (Buddhist term)
àn mèiobscure
méng mèi wú zhībenighted (idiom)
mèi liáng xīnit goes against one's conscience
mán xīn mèi jǐto blot out one's conscience
mèi mòveiled
19
Total compounds
26
As first character
47
As last character
26
As middle character

appears in 19 compound words: 26 as the first character, 47 as the last, and 26 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.

ài
0.8062,967 co-occurrences
0.6353,114 co-occurrences
shuǎng
0.422294 co-occurrences
sān
0.4147,752 co-occurrences
0.396234 co-occurrences
mào
0.387450 co-occurrences
máng
0.38172 co-occurrences
hūn
0.378246 co-occurrences
zhōu
0.372258 co-occurrences
kuò
0.35284 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

bùchuǎimàomèiHSK 7+

to venture to; presume; to take the liberty of

phrase
mán xīn mèi jǐHSK 7+

to blot out one's conscience

phrase
méng mèi wú zhīHSK 7+

benighted (idiom); ignorant

phrase
shíjīnbùmèiHSK 7+

to not pocket the money or other valuables one picks up; to return lost property to its owner

phrase
sùmèipíngshēngHSK 7+

to be strangers to each other; to have never met before

phrase
yú mèi wú zhīHSK 7+

stupid and ignorant (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

出时分,渔民们已经出海捕鱼了。

mèi chū shí fēn , yú mín men yǐ jīng chū hǎi bǔ yú le .

By the time dawn broke, the fishermen had already set out to sea to catch fish.

BastillepostApr 2026

等巴士530现金飘落脚边 港女拾金不报警 3个月后无人认领获意外之财犹豫点处...

děng bā shì 5 3 0 xiàn jīn piāo luò jiǎo biān gǎng nǚ shè jīn bù mèi bào jǐng 3 gè yuè hòu wú rén rèn lǐng huò yì wài zhī cái yóu yù diǎn chǔ . . .

三立新聞網Mar 2026

俐蓁爆暧男队友同返住处 松口真实关系

俐 蓁 bào ài mèi nán duì yǒu tóng fǎn zhù chǔ sōng kǒu zhēn shí guān xì

EttodayMar 2026

建材业陈杰宪见光死!杨千霈生日趴“他盛装...

ài mèi jiàn cái yè chén jié xiàn jiàn guāng sǐ ! yáng qiān 霈 shēng rì pā tā shèng zhuāng . . .

Chen Jiexian, linked to the construction industry, is exposed! At Yang Qianpei’s birthday party, “he was all dressed up...”

Hk01.comFeb 2026

5星座爱搞暧把你当备胎 天秤优柔寡断 这星座关心超朋...

5 xīng zuò ài gǎo ài mèi bǎ nǐ dāng bèi tāi tiān chēng yōu róu guǎ duàn zhè xīng zuò guān xīn chāo péng . . .

5 zodiac signs love to be ambiguous and treat you as a spare tire Libra is indecisive This constellation cares about super friends...

EttodayFeb 2026

GOT7 Jay B传暧情! “同款情侣帽、背景”爆热恋74万正...

G O T 7 J a y B chuán ài mèi qíng ! tóng kuǎn qíng lǚ mào , bèi jǐng bào rè liàn 7 4 wàn zhèng . . .

GOT7 Jay B conveys ambiguous love! "Same couple hat, background" exploded love 740,000 positive...

Tatoeba

始终是危险的。

Yúmèi shǐzhōng shì wēixiǎn de.

Ignorance is always dangerous.

Tatoeba

他们的关系有些暧

Tāmen de guānxi yǒuxiē àimèi.

Their relationship is dubious.

Tatoeba

世上的罪恶差不多总是由愚无知造成的。

Shìshàng de zuì'è chàbuduō zǒngshì yóu yúmèiwúzhī zàochéng de.

The world's evil almost always comes from ignorance.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced mèi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 昧 (mèi) mean in Chinese?
昧 (mèi) primarily means "to conceal." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2306 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 昧 and 灯?
昧 (mèi) and 灯 (dēng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 昧 (dark) vs 灯 (light).
How many strokes does 昧 have?
昧 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 昧?
The radical associated with 昧 is 日 (sun). This radical appears in many characters related to sun.
What are the components of 昧?
昧 is composed of: 日 (semantic), 未 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰日未 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 昧?
Common words with 昧 include: 冒昧 (mào mèi, "bold"); 暧昧 (ài mèi, "vague"); 愚昧 (yú mèi, "ignorant"); 暧昧关系 (ài mèi guān xì, "shady relationship"); 愚昧无知 (yú mèi wú zhī, "stupid and ignorant (idiom)"). There are over 19 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 昧 (mèi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation mèi: 妹 (younger sister), 没 ((negative prefix for verbs) have not), 枚 (classifier for small objects: coins, badges, rings, carved seals, chess pieces, eggs, fingerprints etc (more formal than 個|个)), 玫 ((fine jade)), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 昧 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 昧 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.