牡 meaning and stroke order
Male animal; key, door bolt
How to write 牡, stroke by stroke
7 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
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- 7
Meaning of 牡
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- (of a bird, animal or plant) male
- key
- hills
How 牡 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Ox.
牛 gives the meaning and 土 hints at the sound.
Radical: 牛 (ox), shared by 34 characters on this site.
How to remember 牡
牡 combines 牛 (ox) on the left with 土 on the right. The data marks 土 as the phonetic part, but you can picture a strong ox, a male animal, standing firmly on the ground 土.
Today 牡 rarely appears alone. You mostly meet it in fixed words like 牡丹 (mǔdan, tree peony) and 牡蛎 (mǔlì, oyster), and in formal or biological terms for male animals. Example: 春天牡丹开了。(Chūntiān mǔdan kāi le.) The peonies bloomed in spring.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 牡 (mǔ, male) with its opposite 牝 (pìn, female), since both use the 牛 radical. Another common slip is reading 牡 as mù, but the tone is third, mǔ.
Common words with 牡
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
牡 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 牡
How many strokes are in 牡?
牡 is written with 7 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 牡 mean?
牡 (mǔ) means male animal; key, door bolt. A common word with it is 牡丹 (mǔdan), meaning "tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa)".
How do you pronounce 牡?
牡 is pronounced mǔ, in the third tone (dipping).
What is the radical of 牡?
The radical of 牡 is 牛, which carries the idea of "ox". Dictionaries list 牡 under this radical.
Is 牡 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 牡 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Do people say 牡 for male animals in everyday speech?
Not usually. In daily speech people say 公 (gōng) for male animals, as in 公鸡 (gōngjī, rooster), and 雄 (xióng) in more formal or scientific contexts.
Why does 牡蛎 mean oyster if 牡 means male?
In this word 牡 simply forms part of a fixed name. You do not need to read it as meaning male, so just learn 牡蛎 (mǔlì) as one word for oyster.