猛 (měng): ferocious, fierce, violent

猛 (měng) is a Chinese character meaning “ferocious.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 犭 (semantic) and 孟 (phonetic). It ranks #1155 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 猛 dog. Its radical form 犭 (dog) appears in many related characters such as 狗 (gǒu, dog), 猫 (māo, cat), 状 (zhuàng, (bound form) form).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. ferocious
  2. fierce
  3. violent

Etymology & Origin

猛

pictophoneticdog

Decomposition: ⿰犭孟 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
猛虎nounměng hǔfierce tiger
猛烈adjectiveměng lièfierce
勇猛adjectiveyǒng měngbold and powerful
凶猛adjectivexiōng měngfierce
猛禽nounměng qínbird of prey
猛兽nounměng shòuferocious beast
猛击verbměng jīto slap
猛犸nounměng mǎmammoth (genus Mammuthus)
迅猛adjectivexùn měngquick and violent
猛地měng desuddenly
威猛adjectivewēi měngbold and powerful
猛攻verbměng gōngto attack violently
突飞猛进phrasetū fēi měng jìnto advance by leaps and bounds
猛然adverbměng ránsuddenly
猛打verbměng dǎto strike
49
Total compounds
71
As first character
14
As last character
14
As middle character

猛 appears in 49 compound words: 71 as the first character, 14 as the last, and 14 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 猛 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

烈liè
0.61810,864 co-occurrences
禽qín
0.6042,067 co-occurrences
灌guàn
0.58219 co-occurrences
抨pēng
0.554902 co-occurrences
佐zuǒ
0.54513 co-occurrences
藤téng
0.53213 co-occurrences
虎hǔ
0.5213,438 co-occurrences
凶xiōng
0.5121,042 co-occurrences
蚁yǐ
0.511570 co-occurrences
冕miǎn
0.50712 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

高歌猛进gāogēměngjìnHSK 7+

to advance triumphantly

phrase
洪水猛兽hóngshuǐměngshòuHSK 7+

enormous disasters; something that causes enormous damage

phrase
谋臣猛将móu chén měng jiàngHSK 7+

strategic experts and powerful generals (idiom)

phrase
突飞猛进tūfēiměngjìnHSK 7+

to progress rapidly; leaps and bounds

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老虎是猛兽,在野外遇到时要保持距离。

Lǎohǔ shì měngshòu, zài yěwài yù dào shí yào bǎochí jùlí.

Tigers are fierce animals; keep your distance when encountering them in the wild.

LtnFeb 2026

...貨王 百貨商圈概念宅成市場焦點 品牌建商猛購地卡位

. . . 貨 wáng bǎi 貨 shāng juān gài niàn zhái chéng shì 場 jiāo 點 pǐn pái jiàn shāng měng 購 dì kǎ wèi

...The King of Goods: Department Store-Style Residential Concepts Capture Market Attention Premium Developers Rush to Snap Up Land to Secure Prime Locations

LtnFeb 2026

經典賽》衛冕軍火力全開!佐藤輝明猛打賞灌5打點、森下翔太開轟4打點 日本隊...

經 diǎn 賽 衛 冕 軍 huǒ lì quán 開 ! zuǒ téng 輝 míng měng dǎ 賞 guàn dǎ 點 sēn xià xiáng tài 開 轟 dǎ 點 rì běn 隊 . . .

Classic》Defending Champions Unleash Full Offensive Firepower! Teruaki Sato Delivers a Three-Hit Game with 5 RBIs, Shota Morishita Blasts a Homerun for 4 RBIs... Japan Team...

TvbsFeb 2026

.../好天氣倒數!一週2波鋒面接力 這天雨最猛「連下4天」

. . . hǎo tiān 氣 dǎo 數 ! yī 週 bō 鋒 miàn jiē lì 這 tiān yǔ zuì měng 連 xià tiān

... /The weather is good! 2 Waves of Fronts in a Week - Raining for 4 Days!

三立新聞網Feb 2026

台股金蛇年這7檔規模翻倍增 吸金力道猛

tái gǔ jīn shé nián 這 檔 規 mó fān bèi zēng xī jīn lì dào měng

Taiwan stocks doubled the size of these 7 files in the Year of the Golden Snake, attracting gold.

百度新闻Feb 2026

一场极致的气温震荡即将登场!气温猛冲到“四月春”后..

yī chǎng jí zhì de qì wēn zhèn dàng jí jiāng dēng chǎng ! qì wēn měng chōng dào sì yuè chūn hòu . .

An extreme temperature shock is on the way! Temperatures jumped to "April Spring" after...

Tatoeba

心有猛虎,细嗅蔷薇。

Xīn yǒu měng hǔ, xì xiù qiángwēi.

In me the tiger sniffs the rose.

Tatoeba

旅行社的利润猛涨。

Lǚxíngshè de lìrùn měngzhàng.

Travel agencies' profits soared.

Tatoeba

老虎是一种非常凶猛的动物。

Lǎohǔ shì yīzhǒng fēicháng xiōngměng de dòngwù.

A tiger is a very ferocious kind of animal.

Tatoeba

人要从狗猛酒酸的典故中吸取教训。

Rén yào cóng gǒu měng jiǔ suān de diǎngù zhōng xīqǔjiàoxun.

One must learn a lesson from the difficult situations and bad conditions in one's life.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 犭 (dog) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced měng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 猛 (měng) mean in Chinese?
猛 (měng) primarily means "ferocious." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1155 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 猛 have?
猛 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 猛?
The radical associated with 猛 is 犭 (dog). This radical appears in many characters related to dog.
What are the components of 猛?
猛 is composed of: 犭 (semantic), 孟 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰犭孟 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 猛?
Common words with 猛 include: 猛虎 (měng hǔ, "fierce tiger"); 猛烈 (měng liè, "fierce"); 勇猛 (yǒng měng, "bold and powerful"); 凶猛 (xiōng měng, "fierce"); 猛禽 (měng qín, "bird of prey"). There are over 49 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 猛 (měng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation měng: 梦 (dream), 蒙 (to cover, Mongolia), 盟 (oath), 孟 (first month of a season), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 猛 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 猛 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 猛 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.