毛

Mandarin · pinyin máo#

Meanings · máo

  1. hair
  2. feather
  3. down
  4. wool
  5. mildew
  6. mold
  7. coarse or semifinished
  8. young
  9. raw
  10. careless
  11. unthinking
  12. nervous
  13. scared
  14. (of currency) to devalue or depreciate
  15. classifier for Chinese fractional monetary unit ( = 角 jiǎo , = one-tenth of a yuan or 10 fen 分 fēn)
Mandarin · pinyin Máo#

Meanings · Máo

  1. surname Mao
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Characters in this entry

毛
máo · hair, fur, feathers; coarse
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2 · mao2

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1character link24same-tone records2source references
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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mou4

Cantonese word readings for 毛. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

character · Etymology 1

  1. hair (of humans or animals); fur; feather (Classifier: 根 m; 條/条 c; 支 mn)
  2. (dialectal) hair on the head
  3. mildew; mold
  4. (colloquial) jiao; one tenth of a yuan or dollar; ten cents; dime
  5. coarse; raw; semifinished
  6. (of an amount) gross
  7. rough; sketchy
  8. small; little
  9. careless; unthinking
  10. panicked; scared; nervous
  11. angry; furious
  12. (of currency) depreciated
  13. (Mainland China, colloquial or slang) no; nothing; damn all; my ass
  14. (Cantonese, colloquial, always with the classifier) nothing; damn all; jack shit; bugger all (Classifier: 條/条 c)
  15. (ACG) hair (in unnatural colours)
  16. (Hokkien) tiny; minute
  17. (Hokkien) impure; contaminated; false; mixed
  18. (Mainland China Hokkien) crops; vegetation; greenery; plants
  19. (Mainland China Hokkien) unrefined; crude
  20. a surname

character · Etymology 2

  1. (Southern Min) mountain weed

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

毛 · mao2 · Mao2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source lines 61,663, 61,662
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source records毛 毛 [mao2] /hair/feather/down/wool/mildew/mold/coarse or semifinished/young/raw/careless/unthinking/nervous/scared/(of currency) to devalue or depreciate/classifier for Chinese fractional monetary unit ( = 角[jiao3] , = one-tenth of a yuan or 10 fen 分[fen1])/毛 毛 [Mao2] /surname Mao/