(): do not

() is a Chinese character meaning “do not.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural). It ranks #2461 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a knife 勹 cutting fragments 丿 off. Its radical form (wrap) appears in many related characters such as (bāo, to cover), (sháo, spoon), (gōu, to attract).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. do not

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA knife 勹 cutting fragments 丿 off

Decomposition: ⿹勹⿰丿丿 (layout: surround-from-upper-right)

Components:structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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
qǐng wùplease don't
jǐ suǒ bù yù , wù shī yú rénWhat you don't want done to you, don't do to others. (idiom, from the Confucian analects)
wù wèi yán zhī bù yù(idiom) don't say you haven't been forewarned (threat used by the PRC in international diplomacy)
gé shā wù lùn(idiom) to kill on sight (without fear of prosecution)
wù qiú rénsee 不求人[bu4 qiu2 ren2]
qǐng wù dǎ rǎoplease do not disturb
gū zhì wù lùn(idiom) to put (an issue) to one side for the moment
wù wàng wǒforget-me-not, genus Myosotis (botany)
qǐng wù xī yānNo smoking
fēi chéng wù rǎoserious inquiries only
nìng zuǒ wù yòu(of one's political views) to prefer left rather than right (idiom during the Cultural Revolution)
wù wàng guó chǐNever forget national humiliation, refers to Mukden railway incident of 18th September 1931 九一八事變|九一八事变 and subsequen...
qiè wùby no means
gǒu fù guì , wù xiāng wàngdon't forget your friends when you become rich
6jī cāo wù liù(Internet slang) it's nothing, there's no need to compliment
18
Total compounds
28
As first character
11
As last character
61
As middle character

appears in 18 compound words: 28 as the first character, 11 as the last, and 61 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.

chà
0.5751,356 co-occurrences
wàng
0.5453,510 co-occurrences
0.478720 co-occurrences
qiē
0.4584,020 co-occurrences
rǎo
0.437648 co-occurrences
shèn
0.419744 co-occurrences
0.41430 co-occurrences
xiè
0.414150 co-occurrences
wǎng
0.406126 co-occurrences
wàng
0.400288 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

fēichéngwùrǎoHSK 7+

If you are not sincere then do not bother. / Serious inquiries only.

phrase
géshāwùlùnHSK 7+

Use of deadly force authorized; it is permitted to kill (someone) without any legal consequence.

phrase
qǐng wù dǎrǎoHSK 7+

do not disturb

phrase
shāo'ān wùzàoHSK 7+

synonym of 少安勿躁 (shǎo'ān wùzào)

phrase

Showing 4 of 5 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

吸烟,保持清洁。

Qǐng wù xīyān, bǎochí qīngjié.

Please do not smoke, keep clean.

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...疫情升温!49人染病3人不治 当局急呼吁吃生猪肉

. . . yì qíng shēng wēn ! 4 9 rén rǎn bìng 3 rén bù zhì dāng jú jí hū xū wù chī shēng zhū ròu

... The epidemic is heating up! 49 people were infected and 3 died The authorities urgently appealed not to eat raw pork

NewsFeb 2026

示警一味靠向美国!黄介正点出最怕川普对台湾说...

shì jǐng wù yī wèi kào xiàng měi guó ! huáng jiè zhèng diǎn chū zuì pà chuān pǔ duì tái wān shuō . . .

Warning not to blindly lean on the United States! Huang Jiezheng pointed out that he was most afraid of Trump saying to Taiwan...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

竹县初选 徐欣莹、陈见贤吁内斗

zhú xiàn chū xuǎn xú xīn yíng , chén jiàn xián xū wù nèi dǒu

Zhuxian primary election Xu Xinying and Chen Jianxian called on not to fight infighting

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

国民党竹县初选 徐欣莹、陈见贤吁内斗

guó mín dǎng zhú xiàn chū xuǎn xú xīn yíng , chén jiàn xián xū wù nèi dǒu

Kuomintang Zhuxian primary election Xu Xinying and Chen Jianxian called on not to fight infighting

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

黄友凤吁警遵循指示 以服装为由拒报案

huáng yǒu fèng xū jǐng zūn xún zhǐ shì wù yǐ fú zhuāng wéi yóu jù bào àn

Huang Youfeng urges police to follow procedures and not refuse to take reports based on clothing

Tatoeba

穿过花园时,请践踏花坛。

Chuānguò huāyuán shí, qǐng wù jiàntà huātán.

Please don’t stomp on the flower beds when you walk through the garden.

Tatoeba

要盛得满得很。

Fàn wù yào shèng de mǎn dehěn.

Don't fill up your bowl with too much food.

Tatoeba

如有火警,切使用升降机。

Rú yǒu huǒjǐng, qièwù shǐyòng shēngjiàngjī.

In case of fire, do not use the lift.

Tatoeba

公园的告示牌上写着「请践踏草地」。

Gōngyuán de gàoshìpái shàng xiě zhe "qǐng wù jiàntà cǎodì."

The park sign says "Please keep off the grass."

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the wrap radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 勿 (wù) mean in Chinese?
勿 (wù) primarily means "do not." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2461 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 勿 have?
勿 is written with 4 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 勿?
The radical associated with 勿 is 勹 (wrap). This radical appears in many characters related to wrap.
What are the components of 勿?
勿 is composed of: 勹 (structural), undefined (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿹勹⿰丿丿 with a surround-from-upper-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 勿?
Common words with 勿 include: 请勿 (qǐng wù, "please don't"); 己所不欲,勿施于人 (jǐ suǒ bù yù , wù shī yú rén, "What you don't want done to you, don't do to others. (idiom, from the Confucian analects)"); 勿谓言之不预 (wù wèi yán zhī bù yù, "(idiom) don't say you haven't been forewarned (threat used by the PRC in international diplomacy)"); 格杀勿论 (gé shā wù lùn, "(idiom) to kill on sight (without fear of prosecution)"); 勿求人 (wù qiú rén, "see 不求人[bu4 qiu2 ren2]"). There are over 18 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 勿 (wù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation wù: 乌 (abbr. for country names that begin with 烏|乌: Ukraine 烏克蘭|乌克兰, Uzbekistan 烏茲別克斯坦|乌兹别克斯坦 etc), 污 (dirty), 屋 ((bound form) house), 五 (five), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 勿 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 勿 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.