無

Translingual

Stroke order (cursive)

Han character

無 (Kangxi radical 86, 火+8, 12 strokes, cangjie input 人廿火 (OTF), four-corner 8033₁, composition ⿱⿳𠂉卌一灬)

Derived characters

• 㒇, 嘸, 墲, 嫵, 幠, 㣳, 憮, 撫, 潕, 𬍇, 𨼊, 𣊲, 膴, 橅, 㷻, 璑, 𨖴, 𤏠, 瞴, 𥕻, 𥼣, 䌗, 蟱, 譕, 𩻚, 𠓺, 鄦, 甒, 鷡, 廡, 蕪, 䍢, 䉑, 𨶭, 𠢬, 𨅐

Related characters

• 无 (Simplified Chinese)

Further reading

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 673, character 26
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 19113
• Dae Jaweon: page 1081, character 24
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 2211, character 15
• Unihan data for U+7121

Chinese

Wikipedia has articles on:

• 無 (Written Standard Chinese^?)
• Mò̤ (Eastern Min)

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 無
Shang	Western Zhou	Warring States		Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Qin slip script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Pictogram (象形) . A man dancing with something long held in both hands.

This character is borrowed for “have no”, and the character 舞 (wǔ) is used for the original sense.

Etymology 1

Core Sino–Tibetan. From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ma (“no, not”); cognate with Tibetan མ་ (ma, “not”) and Burmese မ (ma., “not”).

Cognate with:

• 微 (OC *mɯl, “not, no”)
• 毋 (OC *ma, “do not”)
• 勿 (OC *mɯd, “not, don't”)
• 未 (OC *mɯds, “not yet, haven't”)
• 靡 (OC *mralʔ, “not, no”)
• 亡 (OC *maŋ, “not have; to flee, to disappear, to die”)
• 沒 (OC *mɯːd, “to end, to disappear, to drown”)
• 莫 (OC *maːɡ, “none, nobody, nothing; do not; can not”)

Attested profusely in Classical Chinese, this word is the prototypical negation particle in the *m- series of Chinese negatives. In the oracle bone script, however, 無 is not frequently used, and its homophone (or near-homophone) 毋 (OC *ma) is used instead.

See 不 (OC *pɯ, *pɯʔ, *pɯ', “not”) for more on negative particles in Old Chinese.

Pronunciation

Definitions

無

1. (literary or Hakka, Min) to not have something; there is not ...

   天空無雲。／天空无云。  ―  Tiānkōng wú yún.  ―  There is no cloud in the sky.

   我無零星錢。 [Hokkien, trad.]
   我无零星钱。 [Hokkien, simp.]

   Góa bô lân-san-chîⁿ [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]

   I don't have any change.

   • 也許一想起某某是唯一可鍾意　才來害怕無下次其實多麼諷刺 [Literary Cantonese, trad.]
     也许一想起某某是唯一可钟意　才来害怕无下次其实多么讽刺 [Literary Cantonese, simp.]

     From: 2019, 林家謙 [Terence Lam], 下一位前度

     jaa⁵ heoi² jat¹ soeng² hei² mau⁵ mau⁵ si⁶ wai⁴ jat¹ ho² zung¹ ji³, coi⁴ loi⁴ hoi⁶ paa³ mou⁴ haa⁶ ci³ kei⁴ sat⁶ do¹ mo¹ fung³ ci³

     Maybe once I think of someone as the only one I can love, I would be afraid that there would not be a next time, but it's actually quite ridiculous

2. (literary or Min) Negation particle preceding verbs and adjectives. not

   無可／无可  ―  wúkě  ―  can't

   我無求於你。／我无求于你。  ―  Wǒ wú qiú yú nǐ.  ―  I want nothing from you.

3. (literary or Min) have not

   我無共伊講。 [Hokkien, trad.]
   我无共伊讲。 [Hokkien, simp.]

   Góa bô kā i kóng. [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]

   I didn't tell him.

4. (literary or Hakka, Min) Interrogative particle.

   • 晚來天欲雪，能飲一杯無？ [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     晚来天欲雪，能饮一杯无？ [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: 白居易《問劉十九》

     Wǎnlái tiān yù xuě, néng yǐn yī bēi wú?

     Night comes and the sky seems like it might snow; could you drink a cup?

5. (Hakka, Min) if not; otherwise (placed at the start of a sentence)
6. (Hokkien, Teochew) Particle used after a verb to indicate that a goal has not or cannot been accomplished.

   看無／看无 [Hokkien]  ―  khòaⁿ-bô [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  to not understand (when reading or viewing); to be unable to see

   只個字在字典揣無。 [Teochew, trad.]
   只个字在字典揣无。 [Teochew, simp.]

   zi² gai⁷ ri⁷ do⁶ ri⁷ diêng² cuê⁷ bho⁵. [Peng'im]

   You can't find this word in the dictionary.

7. ^† regardless of; no matter whether
8. ^† nothing; nil

   從無到有／从无到有  ―  cóng wú dào yǒu  ―  start from nothing, from scratch

9. ^† Alternative form of 毋 (wú, “do not”)
10. without; -less; un-

    無情／无情  ―  wúqíng  ―  heartless

    無理／无理  ―  wúlǐ  ―  unreasonable

    無邊／无边  ―  wúbiān  ―  unlimited

Synonyms

See also

• (interrogative particle) 未 (wèi), 嗎／吗 (ma), 否 (fǒu)

Compounds

Descendants

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Definitions

無

1. Only used in 南無／南无 (nāmó).

Compounds

Etymology 3

Further reading

• “Entry #8588”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2023.
• “無”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. nothing
2. nothingness
3. none
4. nil
5. not

Readings

• Go-on: む (mu, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: ぶ (bu, Jōyō)
• Tō-on: も (mo)
• Kun: ない (nai, 無い, Jōyō); なみする (namisuru, 無みする); なみする (namisuru, 無する)

Compounds