茂

mào
adjective #19,652

Meanings

  1. 1 luxuriant
  2. 2 lush
  3. 3 profuse (of vegetation)
  4. 4 thriving
  5. 5 used as a given name

Examples

HSK 3
Tā jiào Lǐ Mào, shì gè rèqíng de niánqīngrén.
His name is Li Mao - he is an enthusiastic young man.
HSK 6
Yǔ hòu, shùlín lǐ de zhíwù shēngzhǎng de géwài màoshèng.
After the rain, the plants in the forest grew especially lush.

Tips

memory
茂 has the grass radical 艹 at the top, fitting for 'lush vegetation'. It's also common in names implying vitality. Key compounds: 茂盛 (màoshèng, lush/thriving), 茂密 (màomì, dense/thick).

Components

radical
艹 cǎo
grass; plant
The grass radical caps 茂 - three blades marking it as vegetation. 茂 means luxuriant growth specifically, so the radical anchors the lush, dense character of the meaning. It indexes 茂 with the floral family: 花 flower, 草 grass, 苗 sprout, 蔬 vegetable.
phonetic
戊 wù
fifth heavenly stem (here phonetic)
戊 supplies the sound - wù drifting to mào, a real but irregular shift through the labial-initial layer. Its picture is an ancient halberd, contributing nothing semantically here. The same phonetic also surfaces faintly in 戍 garrison and 戌 (eleventh stem).

Stroke Order

茂 mào