noun

Meanings

  1. 1 nanny; nursemaid
  2. 2 female tutor (old)

Examples

Wǒmen qǐng le yí gè bǎomǔ zhàogù bǎobao.
We hired a nanny to take care of the baby.
Zhè gè bǎomǔ hěn yǒu nàixīn, háizi men dōu xǐhuan tā.
This nanny is very patient and the children all like her.

Tips

usage
almost never stands alone. Its main everyday word is 保姆 (nanny / domestic helper). It also appears as a transliteration syllable in foreign names. A rare dialectal reading m shows up only in 姆妈 (mum, in some southern speech).

Components

radical
woman; female
The woman radical on the left files under a family of words for female roles and caregivers, fitting its core meaning of a nursemaid or female tutor.
phonetic
mother
(mother) gives the sound mǔ and also lends a faint maternal flavor, which suits a word for someone who mothers and raises children.

Stroke Order