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茫

máng
adjective #34,374

Meanings

  1. 1 vast and boundless
  2. 2 hazy
  3. 3 indistinct
  4. 4 confused

Examples

HSK 3
茫茫大海，看不到边。
Mángmáng dàhǎi, kànbudào biān.
The boundless sea - you can't see its edge.
HSK 5
对未来他感到一片茫然。
Duì wèilái tā gǎndào yí piàn mángrán.
He felt completely at a loss about the future.

Tips

usage
茫 rarely stands alone. You'll meet it in 茫茫 (vast and boundless), 茫然 (at a loss / blank), 渺茫 (distant and uncertain), 迷茫 (confused / hazy). Pick the compound; 茫 alone is poetic.
memory
Top half is 艹 (grass radical) over 亡 (perish, but here phonetic 'mang'). Imagine grass stretching out so far it 'perishes' on the horizon - that's 茫.

Components

radical
艹 cǎo
grass (radical form of 艸)
Grass radical on top - the top-cap form of 艸. It files 茫 with 草 grass, 苗 sprout, 莽 thicket. The image is the endless reach of overgrown grassland - that 'boundless' feel is what extends from literal vegetation to 茫茫 'vast and hazy', the modern dominant sense.
phonetic
汒 máng
vast water (氵 over 亡)
Bottom 汒 (water 氵 plus 亡 'to disappear') supplies the máng sound and a strong semantic echo - water stretching out until it vanishes from sight. Combined with the grass on top, the whole graph captures 'grassland and water blurring into the horizon' - the boundless haze of 茫.

Stroke Order

茫 máng