莫 (mò) is a Chinese character meaning “do not”. It is written from 艹 (grass / plant radical) and 日 (sun; day) and 大 (big), and takes 10 strokes.
Build the character for “don't; no one”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
艹 + 日 + 大
Top–middle–bottom structure
Structure from: Modern glyph decomposition ⿳艹日大, verified against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 stroke geometry (strokes 0-2 form 艹, 3-6 form 日, 7-9 form 大)
Memory aid
Grass (艹) on top, the sun (日) in the middle, something big (大) below: the sun has sunk into the grass — don't (莫) go out now.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
10 strokes
In real words
- 莫名其妙mò míng qí miàobaffling; inexplicable; for no apparent reason莫 = mò
- 莫非mò fēicould it be that…?; can it be莫 = mò
Go deeper
All readings
don't; no one; nothing
do not; there is no one / nothing that; used in set phrases such as 莫名其妙
不要；没有谁、没有什么。多用于书面语和成语。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 莫名其妙mò míng qí miàobaffling; inexplicable; for no apparent reason莫 = mò
- 莫非mò fēicould it be that…?; can it be莫 = mò
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 莫 mean?
莫 (mò) means do not; there is no one / nothing that; used in set phrases such as 莫名其妙.
How do you pronounce 莫?
It is pronounced mò.
What parts is 莫 made of?
艹 (grass / plant radical) and 日 (sun; day) and 大 (big). The recorded source is: Modern glyph decomposition ⿳艹日大, verified against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 stroke geometry (strokes 0-2 form 艹, 3-6 form 日, 7-9 form 大). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 莫 have?
10. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 莫?
艹. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 莫?
Common ones are 莫名其妙 and 莫非. The reading of 莫 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.