verb HSK 4 #2,071

Meanings

  1. 1 to touch
  2. 2 to feel
  3. 3 to grope
  4. 4 to figure out

Examples

Qǐng búyào mō zhǎnpǐn.
Please don't touch the exhibits.
Tā mō le mō háizi de étóu.
She felt the child's forehead.
Tā zài hēi'àn zhōng mōsuǒ qiánjìn.
He groped his way forward in the dark.

Tips

usage
(mōsuǒ) means to grope/fumble or figuratively to figure out by trial and error. means can't make heads or tails of it.

Components

radical
shǒu
hand (radical form)
Left hand radical — side-form of , indexing radical for . Marks as a hand-action verb. Same hand-radical family as (take), (push), (hug), (caress), (press). Touching is the most basic of these — feeling the surface of something with the fingertips.
phonetic
do not; sunset (phonetic)
Right phonetic — supplies the sound (mò → mō, just vowel-tone shift; the wider series gives mó, mó, mò, mù). Itself originally pictured the sun () sinking among grass and trees, the moment of dusk. Faint semantic echo: in fading light you reach out and feel your way () — hand-by-touch where the eyes fail.

Stroke Order