牟 (móu): surname Mou, barley

牟 (móu) is a Chinese character meaning “barley.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 厶 (structural) and 牛 (semantic). It ranks #3813 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 牟 ox. Its radical form 牜 (牜) appears in many related characters.

Spoken pronunciation
6 strokesFrequency #3813厶 structural牛 semantic

Definitions

  1. surname Mou
  2. barley

Etymology & Origin

牟

pictophoneticox

Decomposition: ⿱厶牛 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
牟利verbmóu lìto gain profit (by underhand means)
牟取暴利móu qǔ bào lìto reap huge profits (esp. by unscrupulous means)
牟取verbmóu qǔto gain profit (by underhand means)
释迦牟尼proper-nounshì jiā móu níShakyamuni (Sanskrit for "the Sage of the Shakyas", i.e. the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama)
牟平区mù píng qūMuping, a district of Yantai City 煙台市|烟台市, Shandong
中牟proper-nounzhōng mùsee 中牟縣|中牟县
牟定móu dìngsee 牟定縣|牟定县
中牟县zhōng mù xiànZhongmu, a county in Zhengzhou City 鄭州市|郑州市, Henan
牟定县móu dìng xiànMouding, a county in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture 楚雄彝族自治州, Yunnan
牟平proper-nounmù píngsee 牟平區|牟平区
释迦牟尼佛shì jiā móu ní fóSakyamuni Buddha (Sanskrit: sage of the Sakya)
11
Total compounds
64
As first character
9
As last character
27
As middle character

牟 appears in 11 compound words: 64 as the first character, 9 as the last, and 27 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 牟 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

利lì
0.34810 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

释迦牟尼Shìjiāmóuní

Śākyamuni; Gautama Buddha

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

牟字由6笔画组成,结构很巧妙。

Móu zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "牟" consists of six strokes and has a very ingenious structure.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

牟正洋研究发现,八仙不是天生位列仙班的完人,而是历史上民间筛选出来的凡人代表。

Móu zhèng yáng yán jiū fā xiàn , bā xiān bù shì tiān shēng wèi liè xiān bān de wán rén , ér shì lì shǐ shàng mín jiān shāi xuǎn chū lái de fán rén dài biǎo .

Mu Zhengyang’s research reveals that the Eight Immortals were not perfect beings born into the ranks of the immortals, but rather representatives of ordinary people selected by the people throughout history.

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Apr 2026

四川成都青白江区弥牟镇狮子村:田间智慧耕耘 村里业态兴旺

sì chuān chéng dōu qīng bái jiāng qū mí Móu zhèn shī zǐ cūn : tián jiān zhì huì gēng yún cūn lǐ yè tài xīng wàng

Shizi Village, Mimu Town, Qingbaijiang District, Chengdu, Sichuan: Smart Farming in the Fields, Thriving Local Economy

The Beijing NewsApr 2026

...挣钱两不误 参与强控马杜罗行动的美特种兵牟利超40万

. . . zhèng qián liǎng bù wù cān yǔ qiáng kòng mǎ dù luó háng dòng de měi tè zhǒng bīng Móu lì chāo 4 0 wàn

...Balancing work and profit: U.S. special forces soldiers involved in the operation to forcibly remove Maduro made over 400,000 yuan

BastillepostApr 2026

匹兹堡邮报觅得买家免临结业 获非牟利新闻机构收购

pǐ zī bǎo yóu bào mì dé mǎi jiā miǎn lín jié yè huò fēi Móu lì xīn wén jī gòu shōu gòu

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Finds a Buyer, Avoiding Closure; Acquired by a Nonprofit News Organization

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

...点“岗山之眼”售票员勾结验票员 一票两卖牟利被起诉

. . . diǎn gǎng shān zhī yǎn shòu piào yuán gōu jié yàn piào yuán yī piào liǎng mài Móu lì bèi qǐ sù

...Ticket seller at "Gangsan Eye" colluded with ticket inspector; charged with selling the same ticket twice for personal gain

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 牛 (ox) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 牟 (móu) mean in Chinese?
牟 (móu) primarily means "barley." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3813 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 牟 have?
牟 is written with 6 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 牟?
The radical associated with 牟 is 牜. This radical appears in many characters related to this concept.
What are the components of 牟?
牟 is composed of: 厶 (structural), 牛 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱厶牛 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 牟?
Common words with 牟 include: 牟利 (móu lì, "to gain profit (by underhand means)"); 牟取暴利 (móu qǔ bào lì, "to reap huge profits (esp. by unscrupulous means)"); 牟取 (móu qǔ, "to gain profit (by underhand means)"); 释迦牟尼 (shì jiā móu ní, "Shakyamuni (Sanskrit for "the Sage of the Shakyas", i.e. the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama)"); 牟平区 (mù píng qū, "Muping, a district of Yantai City 煙台市|烟台市, Shandong"). There are over 11 compound words containing this character.
Is 牟 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 牟 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 牟 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.