沐 (mù): to bathe, to cleanse, to receive

沐 (mù) is a Chinese character meaning “to bathe.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 木 (phonetic). It ranks #2919 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 沐 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to bathe
  2. to cleanse
  3. to receive

Etymology & Origin

沐

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵木 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
沐浴verbmù yùto bathe
沐浴用品mù yù yòng pǐnbath product
沐雨栉风mù yǔ zhì fēngto work unceasingly regardless of the weather (idiom)
栉风沐雨phrasezhì fēng mù yǔlit. to comb one's hair in the wind and wash it in the rain (idiom)
沐猴而冠phrasemù hóu ér guànlit. a monkey wearing a hat (idiom)
沐浴花mù yù huāshower puff
沐浴球mù yù qiúshower puff
沐恩verbmù ēnto receive favor
沐川县mù chuān xiànMuchuan, a county in Leshan City 樂山市|乐山市, Sichuan
沐浴露nounmù yù lùshower gel
沐浴油mù yù yóubath oil
休沐xiū mù(literary) a regular day off granted to officials in ancient times, for "rest and bathing"
沐川proper-nounmù chuānsee 沐川縣|沐川县
沐浴乳nounmù yù rǔbody wash (liquid soap)
14
Total compounds
86
As first character
7
As last character
7
As middle character

沐 appears in 14 compound words: 86 as the first character, 7 as the last, and 7 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 沐 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

浴yù
0.7283,188 co-occurrences
荫yìn
0.485162 co-occurrences
汤tāng
0.434196 co-occurrences
乳rǔ
0.394184 co-occurrences
祥xiáng
0.368182 co-occurrences
虹hóng
0.367102 co-occurrences
洗xǐ
0.364136 co-occurrences
婉wǎn
0.36056 co-occurrences
胶jiāo
0.35866 co-occurrences
澡zǎo
0.35218 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

沐猴而冠mùhóu'érguànHSK 7+

worthless person in imposing attire

phrase
沐雨栉风mù yǔ zhì fēngHSK 7+

to work unceasingly regardless of the weather (idiom)

phrase
栉风沐雨zhìfēngmùyǔHSK 7+

to travel and work despite harsh conditions; to work very hard

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

站在桥上望去,沐水缓缓向东流去。

zhàn zài qiáo shǎng wàng qù , mù shuǐ huǎn huǎn xiàng dōng liú qù .

Standing on the bridge, one can see the river flowing gently eastward.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

陆AI晶片巨头寒武纪转盈 同业摩尔线程、沐曦股份亏损缩小

lù A I jīng piàn jù tóu hán wǔ jì zhuǎn yíng tóng yè mó ěr xiàn chéng , mù 曦 gǔ fèn kuī sǔn suō xiǎo

Lu AI chip giant Cambrian turned profitable, and the losses of peers Moore Thread and Muxi shares narrowed

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...BC经典赛将开打!中华队应援团现身集气 沐妍吃素一个月求胜利

. . . B C jīng diǎn sài jiāng kāi dǎ ! zhōng huá duì yīng yuán tuán xiàn shēn jí qì mù 妍 chī sù yī gè yuè qiú shèng lì

... The BC Classic is about to start! The Chinese team cheering group appeared to gather Mu Yan to become a vegetarian for a month to win

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

江沐洋:2.25国际黄金原油走势分析操作思路...

jiāng mù yáng : 2 . 2 5 guó jì huáng jīn yuán yóu zǒu shì fēn xī cāo zuò sī lù . . .

Jiang Muyang: 2.25 International Gold and Crude Oil Trend Analysis Operation Ideas...

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

江沐洋:2.24今日黄金原油走势午夜凌晨操作...

jiāng mù yáng : 2 . 2 4 jīn rì huáng jīn yuán yóu zǒu shì wǔ yè líng chén cāo zuò . . .

Jiang Muyang: 2.24 Today's gold and crude oil trend midnight and early morning operation...

Tatoeba

小木屋沐浴在月光之中。

Xiǎo mù wū mùyù zài yuèguāng zhīzhōng.

The little cabin was bathed in moonlight.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced mù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 沐 (mù) mean in Chinese?
沐 (mù) primarily means "to bathe." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2919 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 沐 and 给?
沐 (mù) and 给 (gěi) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 沐 (receive) vs 给 (give).
How many strokes does 沐 have?
沐 is written with 7 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 沐?
The radical associated with 沐 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 沐?
沐 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 木 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵木 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 沐?
Common words with 沐 include: 沐浴 (mù yù, "to bathe"); 沐浴用品 (mù yù yòng pǐn, "bath product"); 沐雨栉风 (mù yǔ zhì fēng, "to work unceasingly regardless of the weather (idiom)"); 栉风沐雨 (zhì fēng mù yǔ, "lit. to comb one's hair in the wind and wash it in the rain (idiom)"); 沐猴而冠 (mù hóu ér guàn, "lit. a monkey wearing a hat (idiom)"). There are over 14 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 沐 (mù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation mù: 目 (eye), 母 (mother), 木 (wood/tree), 幕 (curtain or screen), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 沐 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 沐 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 沐 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.