noun #29,266

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 steamed bread; steamed bun (Northern Chinese dialect)

Examples

HSK 1
Tā zǎofàn jiù chī le liǎng gè mó.
He just had two steamed buns for breakfast.
HSK 7-9
Shǎnxī de ròujiāmó shì yòng mó jiā zhe ròu zuò de.
Shaanxi's rou jia mo is made by stuffing meat into a steamed bun.

Tips

culture
is a staple food in northern and northwestern China, especially in Shaanxi and Henan provinces. It is central to 肉夹馍, sometimes called a 'Chinese hamburger.' In the south, the equivalent term is 馒头.

Components

radical
shí
food (radical form of 食)
Left food radical - the indexing radical in its 3-stroke side form (compare full standalone). Marks as a foodstuff: a wheat bun, the staple bread of northern China. Anchors it in the food family with (rice meal), (dumpling), (mantou bun), (flatbread).
phonetic
do not; none
Right side supplies the sound - mò shifted to mó through tone change. Same phonetic appears in (model), (touch), (membrane), (desert) - a tidy mó-family clustered around the same onset. The 'don't / none' meaning of is unused here; pure sound role.

Stroke Order