母 meaning in English

mǔ

mother; elderly female relative

HSK 6adjectivenoun5 strokes

Meaning of 母

Definitions from CC-CEDICT.

mǔ

mother
elderly female relative
origin
source
(of animals) female

How to use 母

母 rarely stands alone in speech. It appears in compounds like 母亲 (mǔqīn, mother), 父母 (fùmǔ, parents), and 祖母 (zǔmǔ, paternal grandmother). It also marks female animals and the idea of a source, as in 字母 (zìmǔ, letter of the alphabet). Example: 我父母都是老师。(Wǒ fùmǔ dōu shì lǎoshī.) My parents are both teachers.

母 (mǔ) looks like 女 (nǚ, woman) with two dots inside. Picture the two dots as a mother's breasts for nursing a child, and you have "mother."

Common mistake: Learners often confuse 母 (mǔ) with 毋 (wú, do not), which has one straight stroke through the middle instead of two dots. Also, 母 is third tone, so do not say it like the first-tone 妈 (mā).

母 in example sentences

Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.

我wǒ记jì得de我wǒ父fù母mǔ跟gēn我wǒ说shuō过guò这zhè件jiàn事shì。

I remember my parents telling me about that.

她tā和hé她tā的de父fù母mǔ在zài一yì起qǐ。

She is with her parents.

你nǐ和hé你nǐ的de父fù母mǔ同tóng住zhù吗ma？

Do you live with your parents?

我wǒ母mǔ亲qīn是shì个gè奇qí特tè的de人rén。

My mother is eccentric.

她tā几jī乎hū每měi周zhōu都dōu给gěi她tā的de母mǔ亲qīn写xiě信xìn。

She always writes to her mother every week.

Stroke order for each character

Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.

母 mǔ · mother · 5 strokes

Related words

Words that share a character with 母.

母亲	mǔqīn	mother
父母	fùmǔ	father and mother; parents
字母	zìmǔ	letter (of the alphabet)
祖母	zǔmǔ	father's mother; paternal grandmother
母鸡	mǔjī	hen; don't know (humorous slang mimicking Cantonese 唔知, Jyutping: m4 zi1)
母女	mǔnǚ	mother and daughter; mother-daughter
母子	mǔzǐ	mother and child; parent and subsidiary (companies)
伯母	bómǔ	wife of father's elder brother; aunt
继母	jìmǔ	stepmother
岳母	yuèmǔ	wife's mother; mother-in-law
圣母	Shèngmǔ	goddess
祖父母	zǔfùmǔ	paternal grandparents

Questions about 母

What does 母 mean?

母 (mǔ) means "mother; elderly female relative" and is used as a adjective and noun.

How do you write 母?

母 is made of 1 character: 母 (5 strokes). That is 5 strokes in total.

Is 母 an HSK word?

Yes. 母 is on the HSK 6 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.

What is the difference between 母亲 and 妈妈?

妈妈 (māma) is the everyday word you use to talk to or about your mom. 母亲 (mǔqīn) is more formal and written, often used in speeches, forms, or respectful writing.

How do I say a female animal in Chinese?

Put 母 before the animal name, as in 母鸡 (mǔjī, hen) or 母狗 (mǔgǒu, female dog). The male counterpart usually uses 公 (gōng), as in 公鸡 (gōngjī, rooster).