(): grave, tomb, mausoleum

() is a Chinese character meaning “grave.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #1799 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, earth. Its radical form (earth) appears in many related characters such as (zài, to exist), (, earth, ground), (chǎng, field, place).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. grave
  2. tomb
  3. mausoleum

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticearth

Decomposition: ⿱莫土 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
fén mùgrave
mù dìcemetery
mù bēigravestone
gōng mùpublic cemetery
mù xuétomb
zì jué fén mùto dig one's own grave
dào mùto rob a tomb
mù yuáncemetery
líng mùtomb
gǔ mùold tomb (archaeology)
sǎo mùto sweep a grave (and pay one's respects to the dead person)
mù zhì míngepitaph
mù chǎnggraveyard
mù zàng(archeology) grave
mù dàopath leading to a grave
39
Total compounds
44
As first character
36
As last character
21
As middle character

appears in 39 compound words: 44 as the first character, 36 as the last, and 21 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.

nǎi
0.80312 co-occurrences
niǔ
0.76112 co-occurrences
0.72710 co-occurrences
zàng
0.726100,908 co-occurrences
chǐ
0.68012 co-occurrences
jiǎ
0.65912 co-occurrences
fén
0.64612,803 co-occurrences
0.63812 co-occurrences
míng
0.63022,728 co-occurrences
0.60312 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

juémùbiānshīHSK 7+

to be extremely evil; to have an extremely deep grudge

phrase

Showing 1 of 2 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

生土长的他对这片土地充满感情。

mù shēng tǔ cháng de tā duì zhè piān tǔ dì chōng mǎn gǎn qíng .

Born and raised here, he holds deep affection for this land.

中時新聞網Mar 2026

台中公杂草“烧不停” 警消追查可恶纵火犯

tái zhōng gōng mù zá cǎo shāo bù tíng jǐng xiāo zhuī chá kě è zòng huǒ fàn

Weeds at Taichung Cemetery Keep Burning; Police and Firefighters Hunt for Vandal

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Feb 2026

云南弥勒发现2000多年前青铜工匠地_光明网

yún nán mí lè fā xiàn 2 0 0 0 duō nián qián qīng tóng gōng jiàng mù dì guāng míng wǎng

Yunnan Maitreya discovered a bronze craftsman cemetery more than 2,000 years ago_Guangming.com

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

竹市府提前启动公除草作业 赠小盆栽鼓励分流扫

zhú shì fǔ tí qián qǐ dòng gōng mù chú cǎo zuò yè zèng xiǎo pén zāi gǔ lì fēn liú sǎo mù

The Zhu City Government started the cemetery weeding operation in advance and gave small potted plants to encourage diversion and tomb sweeping

LtnFeb 2026

挑战恐怖片极限尺度!《乃伊》皮肤指甲扭曲变形 骇人模样曝光

tiāo zhàn kǒng bù piàn jí xiàn chǐ dù ! mù nǎi yī pí fū zhǐ jiǎ niǔ qū biàn xíng hài rén mó yàng pù guāng

Challenge the limits of horror movies! "Tomb Nai" skin and nails are twisted and deformed, and the terrifying appearance is exposed

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

东西问·马年说马丨赵艺博:海昏侯中的“马蹄金”缘何而来?

dōng xī wèn mǎ nián shuō mǎ 丨 zhào yì bó : hǎi hūn 侯 mù zhōng de mǎ 蹄 jīn yuán hé ér lái ?

East and West Questions: The Year of the Horse Says Horse丨Zhao Yibo: Where did the "horseshoe gold" in the tomb of the Marquis of Haihun come from?

Tatoeba

约翰甘迺迪被安葬在阿灵顿公

Yuēhàn Gānnǎidí bèi ānzàng zài ā líng dùn gōngmù.

J.F. Kennedy was buried in Arlington Cemetery.

Tatoeba

摇篮里学的带到坟

Yáolán lǐ xué de dài dào fénmù.

What is learned in the cradle is carried to the tomb.

Tatoeba

他们把他埋葬在教堂旁的园。

Tāmen bǎ tā máizàng zàijiào táng páng de mùyuán.

They buried him in the graveyard by the church.

Tatoeba

让苔藓盖上我的坟吧。

Ràng táixiǎn gàishang wǒ de fénmù ba.

Let moss cover my grave.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 墓 (mù) mean in Chinese?
墓 (mù) primarily means "grave." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1799 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 墓 and 寞?
墓 (mù) and 寞 (mò) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 土 vs 宀 (same 莫 component).
How many strokes does 墓 have?
墓 is written with 14 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 墓?
The radical associated with 墓 is 土 (earth). This radical appears in many characters related to earth.
What are the components of 墓?
墓 is composed of: 莫 (phonetic), 土 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱莫土 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 墓?
Common words with 墓 include: 坟墓 (fén mù, "grave"); 墓地 (mù dì, "cemetery"); 墓碑 (mù bēi, "gravestone"); 公墓 (gōng mù, "public cemetery"); 墓穴 (mù xué, "tomb"). There are over 39 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 墓 (mù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation mù: 募 (to canvass for contributions), 幕 (curtain or screen), 慕 (to admire), 暮 (evening), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 墓 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 墓 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.