姆 (mǔ): (old) female tutor

姆 (mǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “(old) female tutor.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 女 (semantic) and 母 (phonetic). It ranks #1060 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 姆 woman. Its radical form 女 (woman) appears in many related characters such as 女 (nǚ, woman), 奶 (nǎi, grandmother, milk), 她 (tā, she).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (old) female tutor

Etymology & Origin

姆

pictophoneticwoman

Decomposition: ⿰女母 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
汤姆proper-nountāng mǔTom (name)
保姆nounbǎo mǔnanny
山姆proper-nounshān mǔ(name) Sam
詹姆斯proper-nounzhān mǔ sīJames (name)
阿姆斯特丹proper-nounā mǔ sī tè dānAmsterdam, capital of Netherlands
阿姆斯特朗proper-nounā mǔ sī tè lǎngsurname Armstrong
萨达姆proper-nounsà dá mǔSaddam Hussein (1937–2006), president of Iraq 1979–2003
哈姆雷特hā mǔ léi tèHamlet (name)
贝克汉姆bèi kè hàn mǔBeckenham or Beckham (name)
莱姆nounlái mǔ(loanword) lime
哈莱姆proper-nounhā lái mǔHarlem district of Manhattan
尼姆ní mǔNîmes (city in France)
弗洛姆fú luò mǔFromm (psychoanalyst)
莱姆病nounlái mǔ bìngLyme disease
克里姆林宫proper-nounkè lǐ mǔ lín gōngthe Kremlin
93
Total compounds
5
As first character
35
As last character
59
As middle character

姆 appears in 93 compound words: 5 as the first character, 35 as the last, and 59 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 姆 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

汤tāng
0.6849,812 co-occurrences
玛mǎ
0.538442 co-occurrences
斯sī
0.53586,406 co-occurrences
拉lā
0.48939,846 co-occurrences
廉lián
0.4887,346 co-occurrences
霍huò
0.4838,338 co-occurrences
阿ā
0.48029,246 co-occurrences
丽lì
0.476394 co-occurrences
厄è
0.4754,392 co-occurrences
哈hā
0.46914,988 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

阿姆哈拉ĀmǔhālāHSK 7+

Amhara (a region of Ethiopia)

勃拉姆斯BólāmǔsīHSK 7+

Brahms (surname)

哈姆雷特hā mǔ léi tèHSK 7+

Hamlet (name); the Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark c. 1601 by William Shakespeare 莎士比亞|莎士比亚

phrase
拉姆安拉Lāmǔ'ānlāHSK 7+

Ramallah (a city in Palestine)

姆巴巴内MǔbābānèiHSK 7+

Mbabane (a city, the capital city of Eswatini)

山姆大叔Shānmǔ DàshūHSK 7+

Uncle Sam

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

古时候,姆子很少有机会接受教育。

gǔ shí hòu , m zǐ hěn shǎo yǒu jī huì jiē shòu jiào yù .

In ancient times, women rarely had the opportunity to receive an education.

Orientaldaily MyMar 2026

宠物产业催生新兴商机 宠物保姆农历新年10天赚近万收入

chǒng wù chǎn yè cuī shēng xīn xīng shāng jī chǒng wù bǎo mǔ nóng lì xīn nián 1 0 tiān zhuàn jìn wàn shōu rù

The pet industry has given birth to emerging business opportunities Pet sitters earn nearly 10,000 yuan in 10 days of the Lunar New Year

公視新聞網 PnnMar 2026

伊朗警告荷姆兹海峡已关闭 若有船舶试图通过将开火

yī lǎng jǐng gào hé mǔ zī hǎi xiá yǐ guān bì ruò yǒu chuán bó shì tú tōng guò jiāng kāi huǒ

Iran warns that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and will open fire if any ships try to pass

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Mar 2026

伊朗-伊拉克沙拉姆切口岸现24小时开放 中领馆工作组已在口...

yī lǎng yī lā kè shā lā mǔ qiē kǒu àn xiàn 2 4 xiǎo shí kāi fàng zhōng lǐng guǎn gōng zuò zǔ yǐ zài kǒu . . .

The Iran-Iraq Shalam Cut Port is now open 24 hours a day, and the Chinese Consulate Working Group has been in the mouth...

LtnFeb 2026

导演惊喊“像挖到黄金”!《哈姆奈特》强势问鼎奥斯卡8项大奖

dǎo yǎn jīng hǎn xiàng wā dào huáng jīn ! hā mǔ nài tè qiáng shì wèn dǐng ào sī kǎ 8 xiàng dà jiǎng

The director exclaimed, "It's like digging gold"! "Hamnet" won 8 Oscars

BastillepostFeb 2026

墨西哥贩毒集团头目被杀引发骚乱 总统辛鲍姆指现时局势趋平静

mò xī gē fàn dú jí tuán tóu mù bèi shā yǐn fā sāo luàn zǒng tǒng xīn 鲍 mǔ zhǐ xiàn shí jú shì qū píng jìng

The killing of the leader of the Mexican drug cartel sparked riots President Simbaum said the situation is now calm

Tatoeba

汤姆真是愚蠢,是吧?

Tāngmǔ zhēnshi yúchǔn, shì ba?

Tom is so stupid, right?

Tatoeba

汤姆住在波士顿吗?

Tāngmǔ zhù zài Bōshìdùn ma?

Is Tom living in Boston?

Tatoeba

你把钥匙给汤姆了吗?

Nǐ bǎ yàoshi gěi Tāngmu le ma?

Did you give Tom the key?

Tatoeba

汤姆是如何出狱的?

Tāngmǔ shì rúhé chūyù de?

How did Tom get out of jail?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 女 (woman) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced mǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 姆 (mǔ) mean in Chinese?
姆 (mǔ) primarily means "(old) female tutor." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1060 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 姆 and 男?
姆 (mǔ) and 男 (nán) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 姆 (female) vs 男 (male).
How many strokes does 姆 have?
姆 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 姆?
The radical associated with 姆 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 姆?
姆 is composed of: 女 (semantic), 母 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女母 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 姆?
Common words with 姆 include: 汤姆 (tāng mǔ, "Tom (name)"); 保姆 (bǎo mǔ, "nanny"); 山姆 (shān mǔ, "(name) Sam"); 詹姆斯 (zhān mǔ sī, "James (name)"); 阿姆斯特丹 (ā mǔ sī tè dān, "Amsterdam, capital of Netherlands"). There are over 93 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 姆 (mǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation mǔ: 拇 (thumb). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 姆 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 姆 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 姆 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.