寞 (mò): lonely

寞 (mò) is a Chinese character meaning “lonely.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 宀 (semantic) and 莫 (phonetic). It ranks #2491 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 寞 roof. Its radical form 宀 (roof) appears in many related characters such as 客 (kè, guest, customer), 家 (jiā, home, family), 它 (tā, it).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. lonely

Etymology & Origin

寞

pictophoneticroof

Decomposition: ⿱宀莫 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 寞

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
寂寞adjectivejì mòlonely6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
落寞adjectiveluò mòlonely
不甘寂寞phrasebù gān jì mòunwilling to remain lonely or idle
3
Total compounds
0
As first character
100
As last character
0
As middle character

寞 appears in 3 compound words: 0 as the first character, 100 as the last, and 0 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 寞 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

寂jì
0.89110,464 co-occurrences
怕pà
0.457324 co-occurrences
孤gū
0.393180 co-occurrences
耐nài
0.37792 co-occurrences
甘gān
0.353148 co-occurrences
芳fāng
0.350124 co-occurrences
落luò
0.350414 co-occurrences
我wǒ
0.337476 co-occurrences
好hǎo
0.329396 co-occurrences
倦juàn
0.32814 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

不甘寂寞bùgānjìmòHSK 7+

to hate to be neglected or overlooked; to be anxious to participate

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他一个人住在大房子里,感到很寂寞。

Tā yí gè rén zhù zài dà fángzi lǐ, gǎndào hěn jìmò.

He lives alone in a big house and feels very lonely.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

大家不甘寂寞,又在蓝房子旁边种了菜,热腾腾地生活着。

dà jiā bù gān jì mò , yòu zài lán fáng zǐ páng biān zhǒng le cài , rè téng téng dì shēng huó zhe .

Not wanting to be bored, everyone planted vegetables next to the blue house and lived life to the fullest.

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

减脂期如果感觉“嘴巴寂寞了”,最好的零食就是鹰嘴豆。

jiǎn zhī qī rú guǒ gǎn jué zuǐ bā jì mò le , zuì hǎo de líng shí jiù shì yīng zuǐ dòu .

If you find yourself craving a snack while trying to lose weight, chickpeas are the best choice.

工商時報Mar 2026

央行不放手 329档期北台湾推了个寂寞 案量15年新低

yāng háng bù fàng shǒu 3 2 9 dàng qī běi tái wān tuī le gè jì mò àn liàng 1 5 nián xīn dī

Central Bank Holds Firm; Northern Taiwan's "329" Sales Season Falls Flat, with Sales Volume at a 15-Year Low

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

等跌族等了个寂寞? 代销揭预售量缩真相:不是房价崩跌前兆

děng diē zú děng le gè jì mò ? dài xiāo jiē yù shòu liàng suō zhēn xiāng : bù shì fáng jià bēng diē qián zhào

Have those waiting for prices to drop been waiting in vain? Real estate agents reveal the truth behind the decline in pre-sales: It’s not a sign of an impending housing market crash

東方日報Feb 2026

刘亦菲单身多时不愁寂寞 爱犬随身陪伴左右

liú yì 菲 dān shēn duō shí bù chóu jì mò ài quǎn suí shēn péi bàn zuǒ yòu

Liu Yifei has been single for a long time and does not worry about loneliness, and her dog is always with her

Tatoeba

汤姆感到十分寂寞。

Tāngmǔ gǎndào shífēn jìmò.

Tom felt very lonely.

Tatoeba

我的寂寞是一条蛇。

Wǒ de jìmò shì yī tiáo shé.

My loneliness is a snake.

Tatoeba

她的生活很寂寞。

Tā de shēnghuó hěn jìmò.

She lived a lonely life.

Tatoeba

有时候你需要一个人呆着。不是寂寞,而是享受只做自己的自由时光。

Yǒushí hòu nǐ xūyào yī gèrén dāizhe. bù shì jìmò, érshì xiǎngshòu zhǐ zuò zìjǐ de zìyóu shíguāng.

Sometimes, you need to be alone. Not to be lonely, but to enjoy some free time just being yourself.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 宀 (roof) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced mò

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 寞 (mò) mean in Chinese?
寞 (mò) primarily means "lonely." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2491 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 寞 and 幕?
寞 (mò) and 幕 (mù) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 宀 vs 巾 (same 莫 component).
How many strokes does 寞 have?
寞 is written with 13 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 寞?
The radical associated with 寞 is 宀 (roof). This radical appears in many characters related to roof.
What are the components of 寞?
寞 is composed of: 宀 (semantic), 莫 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱宀莫 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 寞?
Common words with 寞 include: 寂寞 (jì mò, "lonely"); 落寞 (luò mò, "lonely"); 不甘寂寞 (bù gān jì mò, "unwilling to remain lonely or idle"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 寞 (mò)?
Several characters share the pronunciation mò: 模 (to imitate), 摸 (to feel with the hand), 漠 (desert), 膜 (membrane). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 寞 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 寞 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 寞 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.