梦

夢
mèng
noun HSK 4 #776

Measure Word

一场梦 chǎng

Meanings

  1. 1 dream
  2. 2 to dream

Examples

HSK 3
Zuówǎn wǒ zuò le yígè qíguài de mèng.
I had a strange dream last night.
HSK 4
Tā de mèng shì chéngwéi yī míng yīshēng.
His dream is to become a doctor.
HSK 5
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
夕 xī
evening; dusk
Bottom 夕 (evening) carries the meaning - dreams come at night. The radical lookup tradition splits between 木 (top) and 夕 (bottom); modern dictionaries often prefer 夕 since it owns the semantic core. Forest above, night below: an evocative image of wandering through an obscure dreamscape.
semantic
林 lín
forest (two trees)
Doubled 木 forms a forest. Traditional 夢 had no forest, but the modern 梦 reinterprets the upper half as woods, evoking the dim, tangled landscape of dreams. The 木 indexing radical is read off this top, making 梦 part of the wood family for lookup purposes.

Stroke Order

梦 mèng