闷 (mēn): stuffy; muggy; close (of weathe…

Meanings

1 stuffy; muggy; close (of weather, a room)
2 to cover tightly; to keep sealed; to smother
3 (of a person) silent; uncommunicative; doing something without speaking

Characters

闷

mēn

stuffy; muggy; close (of weather, a room)

Examples

今天好闷热，晚上可能有雷阵雨。

Jīntiān hǎo mēnrè, wǎnshang kěnéng yǒu léizhènyǔ.

It's so muggy today — there might be a thunderstorm tonight.

把锅盖盖上，再闷十分钟。

Bǎ guōgài gàishàng, zài mēn shí fēnzhōng.

Cover the pot tightly and let the rice steam for ten more minutes.

他一下午都闷头干活，一句话都没说。

Tā yī xiàwǔ dōu mēntóu gànhuó, yī jù huà dōu méi shuō.

He worked head-down without saying a word all afternoon.

Tips

usage

The mēn reading is the physical 'closed-in' word: stuffy air, sealed lid, lips kept shut. Three useful clusters: weather/air (闷热 muggy, 胸闷 chest tightness), cooking (闷饭 steam-finish rice, 闷锅 keep the lid sealed), and silent-action (闷头 heads-down, 闷声 without a word, 闷骚 quietly intense).

memory

Same gate-over-heart glyph, but the mēn reading focuses on the OUTSIDE of the gate (no air gets in, no sound gets out), while the mèn reading focuses on the INSIDE (the heart is stuck). Physical closed-up = mēn; emotional closed-up = mèn. The verb 'to cover tightly and let cook in its own steam' (把肉闷一下) is always mēn.

Components

radical

门 mén

door; gate

Same gate radical as in the mèn reading. The mēn sense focuses on the literal sealed gate — no air movement, no sound, lid down.

semantic

心 xīn

heart

Same heart radical. In the mēn reading the heart-element fades into the background and the gate-as-lid does most of the work — the focus shifts to what's physically sealed rather than what's emotionally trapped.