adjective #6,931

Meanings

  1. 1 silent
  2. 2 to write from memory

Examples

HSK 3
Tā mòmò de kànzhe yīqiè fāshēng.
He silently watched everything unfold.
HSK 4
Tīngdào xiāoxi hòu, dàjiā dōu chénmò le.
After hearing the news, everyone fell silent.
HSK 7-9
Tā de yōumògǎn ràng dàjiā dōu xiào le.
His sense of humor makes everyone laugh.

Tips

memory
(black) + (dog) - a black dog sitting silently; 幽默 is a loanword for 'humor'

Components

radical
hēi
black; dark
Left component - is both the indexing radical and phonetic (hēi → mò, with significant drift but the rime preserved in older readings). is to keep silent, to hold one's tongue darkly, and the anchors the 'darkness' image. The same phonetic drives (ink - black liquid), keeping the visual link between blackness and the mò-rime.
semantic
quǎn
dog
Dog on the right - a second semantic, supplying the original scene. is itself a stylised dog with a cocked tail. The traditional reading: a dog stalking silently at night in the dark - the source of 'silent'. The pairing fixes the picture, with the dog hushed under cover of (darkness).

Stroke Order