DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

母后

Mandarin · pinyin mǔ hòu

(historical) form of address used by an emperor or imperial children for their mother (the empress or the empress dowager)
(historical) the empress dowager (as a title or form of reference)

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

母: mǔ · mother; female elders; female
后: hòu · queen, empress, sovereign; (simp. for 後) behind, rear, after

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–4 · mu3 hou4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

母后 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

(historical) Term of address for the empress dowager used by the emperor or his siblings: mother
(historical) Term of address for the empress used by children of the emperor: mother

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

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