Chinese Characters Starting with "M start"

Every character has an origin. Discover the pictographs, myths, and history behind each Chinese character — with pinyin, stroke order, HSK level, and audio pronunciation.

Born from 'gropping in dusk,' this 13-stroke chara

Born from hands stroking sheep’s wool, this chara

miáo

Its right side 苗 means 'sprout' — but here it’s

Born from ‘sunset under grass’ + ‘cloth’, 幕 i

This character is literally 'dusk under a roof' —

méi

Originally a 'woman with an eyebrow' — a visual p

miào

Born from a 'woman + little' pictograph, 妙 evolve

This 'silent' character hides a ritual guard-dog i

Its ancient form pictured rice grains scattered on

mào

Born from a beast radical and a kneeling figure,

This character began as a Bronze Age drawing of he

měi

Originally a person wearing a sacred sheep headdre

miǎo

A time unit built on rice — this 'second' began a

Born in the 19th century to translate 'yard', this

màn

This character looks like water spilling over bank

This 'mother' character began as an ancient pictog

This ‘admire’ character hides a sunset in its to

Though pronounced mì like ‘secret,’ 密 original

mèng

Though it contains 木 (‘tree’), 梦 has nothing t

mìng

This 'life' character began as a king issuing divi

miǎn

This 'exemption' character began as a detailed dra

mín

Originally a brutal oracle-bone image of a blinded

This 3-stroke character began as a lifelike horse

This character began as a detailed Bronze Age draw

mǎn

Though it means 'full', 满’s water radical and 13

It looks like a tree with a tiny crown — but thos

mào

Its top half 冒 means 'to emerge' — so 帽 literal

mào

This character has no bottom stroke — because wha

mén

This 3-stroke 'gate' is one of Chinese’s oldest p

mài

This 'sell' character hides a phonetic secret: its

měi

This 'each' character hides a crowned mother — an

màn

This 'slow' character began as a picture of a woma

máng

This ‘busy’ character hides a heart sprinting so

mèi

Its ancient form literally pictures a woman + 'not

Born as a pictograph of a tiny thread, 么 shed its

mǎi

This 'buy' character hides ancient currency: its t

māo

This 'cat' isn’t ancient—it entered Chinese writ

This six-stroke character began as an ancient pict

méi

Born as a drowning man under water, this 7-stroke

míng

Born as sun-and-moon side by side on oracle bones,