谋

謀
móu
verb #7,611

Meanings

  1. 1 to plan
  2. 2 to seek
  3. 3 scheme

Examples

HSK 4
Tā bùdébù líkāi jiāxiāng qù móushēng.
He had to leave home to make a living.
HSK 6
Tāmen zài cèhuà yī gè yīnmóu.
They are plotting a conspiracy.
HSK 7-9
Wǒmen děi wèi jiānglái móu yī tiáo chūlù.
We need to plan a way out for the future.

Tips

memory
言 speech + 某 certain - planning through discussion about certain matters.

Components

radical
讠 yán
speech (radical form of 言)
The speech radical on the left marks 谋 as a verbal activity - plans and schemes are talked through, conferred about, hashed out in conversation. It indexes 谋 with 议 discuss, 谈 chat, 论 argue, 计 calculate - the family of strategic and deliberative speech.
phonetic
某 mǒu
a certain
某 supplies the sound mǒu -> móu, just a tone shift. The picture of 甘 (sweet) over 木 (tree) originally meant a sweet plum, no semantic role here - pure phonetic borrowing. Same phonetic surfaces in 媒 matchmaker, 煤 coal, 莓 berry - all méi/mǒu syllables.

Stroke Order

谋 móu