(): raised path, street

() is a Chinese character meaning “raised path.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #2188 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a large 百 city 阝, representing an unfamiliar place. Its radical form (mound) appears in many related characters such as (, (specifier) that), (dōu, all), (yuàn, courtyard).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. raised path
  2. street

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA large 百 city 阝, representing an unfamiliar place

Decomposition: ⿰阝百 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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
adjectivemò shēngstrange5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
mò shēng rénstranger
xíng tóng mò lùto be estranged
mò lù rénstranger
mò lù(literary) stranger
tián mòpath between fields
liǔ mò huā qúbrothel
ào mò mòʻOumuamua (interstellar object)
qǐ mòsplendid streets
mò mòMomo, GPS-based app for messaging, and potentially meeting up with, other Momo users (typically, strangers) in one's ...
10
Total compounds
50
As first character
20
As last character
30
As middle character

appears in 10 compound words: 50 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 30 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.

shēng
0.49725,868 co-occurrences
0.454942 co-occurrences
shú
0.4351,038 co-occurrences
rén
0.38815,539 co-occurrences
0.351378 co-occurrences
xiàng
0.333210 co-occurrences
dāo
0.325300 co-occurrences
duò
0.32336 co-occurrences
0.318150 co-occurrences
gōng
0.31730 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

xíngtóngmòlùHSK 5+

to treat each other as passers-by; to act as if they are strangers

phrase
liǔ mò huā qúHSK 7+

brothel

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

在这个生的城市里,他感到有些孤独。

Zài zhè gè mòshēng de chéngshì lǐ, tā gǎndào yǒuxiē gūdú.

In this unfamiliar city, he felt somewhat lonely.

StheadlineApr 2026

... : 高度重视事件 吁市民提高警觉勿轻信生人

. . . : gāo dù chóng shì shì jiàn xū shì mín tí gāo jǐng jué wù qīng xìn mò shēng rén

WorldjournalMar 2026

生观众直接走上台 “脱稿演出无人制止”吴...

mò shēng guàn zhòng zhí jiē zǒu shàng tái tuō gǎo yǎn chū wú rén zhì zhǐ wú . . .

It之家Mar 2026

...付款”:腾讯《王者荣耀》S43 新赛季“上相逢”官宣将至

. . . fù kuǎn : téng xùn wáng zhě róng yào S 4 3 xīn sài jì mò shàng xiāng féng guān xuān jiāng zhì

...Payment”: Tencent’s “Honor of Kings” Season 43, “Encounter on the Path,” is set to be officially announced soon

StheadlineMar 2026

PayMe收生人过错数随时变“洗黑钱”?私下退款或被...

P a y M e shōu mò shēng rén guò cuò shǔ suí shí biàn xǐ hēi qián ? sī xià tuì kuǎn huò bèi . . .

PayMe collects strangers' faults and turns into "money laundering" at any time? Private refund or by...

NewsFeb 2026

生人闯入金毛会点反应?实测结果超意外 全...

mò shēng rén chuǎng rù jīn máo huì diǎn fǎn yīng ? shí cè jié guǒ chāo yì wài quán . . .

How do strangers react when they break into a golden retriever? The measured results are super unexpected...

Tatoeba

你这孩子!别老是接触一些生人,很危险的!

Nǐ zhè háizi! bié lǎoshi jiēchù yīxiē mòshēngrén, hěn wēixiǎn de!

Son, stop always getting so close to strangers. It's very dangerous!

Tatoeba

在公车上,一个生人和我说了话。

Zài gōngchē shàng, yī gè mòshēngrén hé wǒ shuō le huà.

A stranger spoke to me on the bus.

Tatoeba

英国人很少在火车上和生人搭讪。

Yīngguórén hěn shǎo zài huǒchē shàng hé mòshēngrén dāshàn.

English people rarely talk to strangers on trains.

Tatoeba

我不想和一个生人分享旅馆房间。

Wǒ bù xiǎng hé yī gè mòshēngrén fēnxiǎng lǚguǎn fángjiān.

I don't want to share the hotel room with a stranger.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 陌 (mò) mean in Chinese?
陌 (mò) primarily means "raised path." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2188 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 陌 have?
陌 is written with 8 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 陌?
The radical associated with 陌 is 阝 (mound). This radical appears in many characters related to mound.
What are the components of 陌?
陌 is composed of: 阝 (structural), 百 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰阝百 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 陌?
Common words with 陌 include: 陌生人 (mò shēng rén, "stranger"); 陌生 (mò shēng, "strange"); 形同陌路 (xíng tóng mò lù, "to be estranged"); 陌路人 (mò lù rén, "stranger"); 陌路 (mò lù, "(literary) stranger"). There are over 10 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 陌 (mò)?
Several characters share the pronunciation mò: 摸 (to feel with the hand), 模 (to imitate), 膜 (membrane), 磨 (to grind, to wear), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 陌 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 陌 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.