mèng
noun HSK 4 #776

Measure Word

chǎng

Meanings

  1. 1 dream
  2. 2 to dream

Examples

Zuówǎn wǒ zuò le yī ge qíguài de mèng.
I had a strange dream last night.
Tā de mèng shì chéngwéi yī míng yīshēng.
His dream is to become a doctor.
Bié zuò báirìmèng le!
Stop daydreaming!

Tips

usage
做梦 = to have a dream. 做白日梦 = to daydream. The collocation is 做梦, not *梦梦 or *有梦.

Components

radical
evening; dusk
Bottom (evening) carries the meaning — dreams come at night. The radical lookup tradition splits between (top) and (bottom); modern dictionaries often prefer since it owns the semantic core. Forest above, night below: an evocative image of wandering through an obscure dreamscape.
semantic
lín
forest (two trees)
Doubled forms a forest. Traditional had no forest, but the modern reinterprets the upper half as woods, evoking the dim, tangled landscape of dreams. The indexing radical is read off this top, making part of the wood family for lookup purposes.

Stroke Order

mèng