瞒 (mán) · to conceal, to hide the truth from, to keep secret

Meanings

1 to conceal
2 to hide the truth from
3 to keep secret

Characters

瞒

mán

to conceal; to hide

Examples

HSK 1

这件事瞒不住的。

Zhè jiàn shì mán búzhù de.

This matter can't be kept secret.

HSK 4

你别瞒我，到底发生了什么？

Nǐ bié mán wǒ, dàodǐ fāshēng le shénme?

Don't hide it from me - what on earth happened?

Tips

usage

瞒 takes a person as its object: 瞒我 (hide from me), 瞒着父母 (keeping it from parents). The pattern 瞒不住 means 'can't keep it hidden'.

memory

The character has 目 (eye) on the left - imagine covering someone's eyes (目) so they can't see the truth.

Components

radical

目 mù

eye

Left radical 目 (eye) anchors 瞒 in vision: to deceive someone is to keep the truth out of their sight. The eye radical groups 瞒 with other vision-verbs like 看 (look), 盯 (stare), 睡 (sleep), 瞎 (blind) - all about what the eye does or fails to do.

semantic

艹 cǎo

grass radical

Top-right 艹 here is the upper portion of the right-side phonetic 㒼 (mán). It sits as a 'grass cap' visually but historically belongs to a fused phonetic stack - together with 两 below it spells out the muffled-cover sound. Recognising 艹 as the top of this phonetic block helps you read 满 (mǎn, full) and 蹒 (pán, stagger) the same way.

phonetic

两 liǎng

two; pair

Bottom-right 两 completes the 㒼 phonetic stack (艹 + 两 ≈ 㒼, mán). The sound is mán to mán in 瞒, a clean phonetic match. Together with 艹 above, 两 supplies the 'covered/hidden' family of readings that links 瞒 (deceive), 满 (full to brim), and 蹒 (stagger as if covered).