(mèng): dream, (bound form) to dream

(mèng) is a Chinese character meaning “dream.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #865 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, two eyes shut 林 at night 夕. Its radical form (tree) appears in many related characters such as (běn, (bound form) root), (, machine, opportunity), (tiáo, strip).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. dream
  2. (bound form) to dream

Etymology & Origin

ideographicTwo eyes shut 林 at night 夕

Decomposition: ⿱林夕 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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
verb/nounmèng xiǎng(fig.) to dream of4
verbzuò mèngto dream4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
è mèngnightmare
è mèngnightmare
mèng huàndream
mèng jiànto dream about (sth or sb)
mèng mèi yǐ qiúlit. to yearn for sth even in one's dreams (idiom)
mèng jìngdreamland
bái rì mèngdaydream
mèng yóuto sleepwalk
mèng yǎnnightmare
chūn mèngspring dream
mèng xiāngthe land of dreams
mèng lùMarilyn Monroe (1926-1962), American actress
bái rì zuò mèngto daydream
mèng yóu zhèngsomnambulism
hún qiān mèng yíng(idiom) to miss very much
73
Total compounds
33
As first character
47
As last character
21
As middle character

appears in 73 compound words: 33 as the first character, 47 as the last, and 21 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.

è
0.6193,125 co-occurrences
0.58112 co-occurrences
duō
0.5682,616 co-occurrences
mèi
0.539744 co-occurrences
xiǎng
0.52927,067 co-occurrences
huàn
0.5017,290 co-occurrences
lóu
0.4899,522 co-occurrences
hóng
0.4869,552 co-occurrences
0.4832,850 co-occurrences
yíng
0.457804 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (16)

báirìzuòmèngHSK 4+

to spin daydreams; to indulge in wishful thinking; to build castles in the air

phrase
chīrénshuōmèngHSK 7+

lunatic ravings; nonsense; pipe dream

phrase
chūnqiūdàmèngHSK 4+

fanciful dream; impracticable fantasy; pipe dream

phrase
hǎo mèng nán chéngHSK 4+

a beautiful dream is hard to realize (idiom)

phrase
měimèngchéngzhēnHSK 4+

to have a dream come true

phrase
mèng huàn pào yǐngHSK 6+

(Buddhism) illusion; pipe dream

phrase
mèngmèiyǐqiúHSK 7+

to desire strongly; to crave; to long for

phrase
Mèng Xī BǐtánHSK 7+

Dream Pool Essays (Song dynasty classic)

rénshēngrúmèngHSK 4+

life is but a dream

phrase
tóngchuángyìmèngHSK 6+

to not get along; to be in discord (usually as a result of different goals); to have different opinions and plans

phrase
chóngwēnjiùmèngHSK 4+

to revive an old dream

phrase
zhuāngzhōumèngdiéHSK 6+

one is never certain whether what one sees is reality or illusion; changeable nature of human life

phrase

Showing 12 of 16 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

春天来了,院子里的木开始发芽抽枝。

chūn tiān lái le , yuàn zǐ lǐ de mèng mù kāi shǐ fā yá chōu zhī .

Spring has arrived, and the dream tree in the yard has begun to sprout buds and branches.

BastillepostFeb 2026

从球场到社区 三哥力撑学界足球精英

cóng qiú chǎng dào shè qū sān gē lì chēng xué jiè zú qiú jīng yīng mèng

From the stadium to the community, the third brother supports the dream of school football elites

東方日報Feb 2026

江若琳支持老公追 相隔20年再出歌

jiāng ruò 琳 zhī chí lǎo gōng zhuī mèng xiāng gé 2 0 nián zài chū gē

Jiang Ruolin supports her husband to pursue her dreams and sing again after 20 years

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...夺金后得悉外婆离世 记者会上哭说“昨晚才到她”

. . . duó jīn hòu dé xī wài pó lí shì jì zhě huì shàng kū shuō zuó wǎn cái mèng dào tā

... After winning the gold, he learned that his grandmother had passed away, and cried at the press conference, saying, "I only dreamed of her last night"

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

冬奥冰球观点/美国队如何断加拿大连霸?三个维度解读史诗对决

dōng ào bīng qiú guàn diǎn měi guó duì rú hé duàn jiā ná dà lián bà mèng ? sān gè wéi dù jiě dòu shǐ shī duì jué

Winter Olympics ice hockey views/How does the U.S. team break Canada's dream of winning back-to-back championships? Interpret the epic showdown in three dimensions

百度新闻Feb 2026

王心迪:在自己圆的同时,也帮助徐桃圆

wáng xīn dí : zài zì jǐ yuán mèng de tóng shí , yě bāng zhù xú mèng táo yuán mèng le

Wang Xindi: While realizing his dream, he also helped Xu Mengtao realize his dream

Tatoeba

我的想是在阿姆斯特丹学习荷兰语。

Wǒ de mèngxiǎng shì zài āmǔsītèdān xuéxí Hélányǔ.

My dream is to study Dutch in Amsterdam.

Tatoeba

你曾经想在天空飞翔吗?

Nǐ céngjīng mèngxiǎng zài tiānkōng fēixiáng ma?

Do you ever dream about flying through the sky?

Tatoeba

我的想是成为一个成功的荷里活演员。

Wǒ de mèngxiǎng shì chéngwéi yī gè chénggōng de hé lǐ huó yǎnyuán.

My dream is to make it as an actor in Hollywood.

Tatoeba

我觉得我好像从恶中惊醒。

Wǒ juéde wǒ hǎoxiàng cóng èmèng zhōng jīngxǐng.

I feel as if I've woken up from a nightmare.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced mèng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 梦 (mèng) mean in Chinese?
梦 (mèng) primarily means "dream." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #865 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 梦 have?
梦 is written with 11 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 梦?
The radical associated with 梦 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 梦?
梦 is composed of: 林 (structural), 夕 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱林夕 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 梦?
Common words with 梦 include: 梦想 (mèng xiǎng, "(fig.) to dream of"); 做梦 (zuò mèng, "to dream"); 噩梦 (è mèng, "nightmare"); 恶梦 (è mèng, "nightmare"); 梦幻 (mèng huàn, "dream"). There are over 73 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 梦 (mèng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation mèng: 萌 ((bound form) to sprout), 盟 (oath), 蒙 (to cover, Mongolia), 朦 (used in 朦朧|朦胧), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 梦 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 梦 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.