卯
Tap the pinyin to hear it
mortise (slot cut into wood to receive a tenon); 4th earthly branch: 5–7 a.m., 2nd solar month (6th March–4th April), Year of the Rabbit; ancient Chinese compass point: 90° (east); (coll.) to concentrate one's strength (variant of 鉚|铆[mao3])
- Strokes
- 5
- Radical
- 卩 +3
- Structure
- Left–right 左右
- Traditional
- 卯
- Common rank
- #2,309
- Unicode
- U+536F
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How 卯 is formed
Components 卩
? unknown part
Words with 卯
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 卯起来 | (coll.) to get enthusiastic; to put in all one's energy | |
| 丁卯战争 | first Manchu invasion of Korea (1627) | |
| 丁是丁，卯是卯 | lit. to keep ding (the fourth heavenly stem) distinct from mao (the fourth earthly branch)… | |
| 丁卯胡乱 | first Manchu invasion of Korea (1627) | |
| 卯时 | 5-7 am (in the system of two-hour subdivisions used in former times) | |
| 卯眼 | mortise; slit | |
| 凿死卯子 | variant of 鑿死鉚子|凿死铆子[zao2 si3 mao3 zi5] | |
| 点卯 | morning roll call | |
| 应卯 | to answer the roll call at 卯時|卯时[mao3 shi2], i.e. between 5 and 7 am; fig. to put in a con… | |
| 丁卯 | fourth year D4 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 1987 or 2047 | |
| 己卯 | sixteenth year F4 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 1999 or 2059 | |
| 子丑寅卯 | (idiom) a full and coherent account of a matter; the complete facts of the case; the whole… | |
| 寅吃卯粮 | lit. eating away next year's food in advance; fig. to dip into the next month's check; liv… | |
| 乙卯 | fifty-second year B4 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 1975 or 2035 | |
| 辛卯 | twenty-eighth year H4 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 2011 or 2071 | |
| 寅支卯粮 | see 寅吃卯糧|寅吃卯粮[yin2 chi1 mao3 liang2] | |
| 卯兔 | Year 4, year of the Rabbit (e.g. 2011) | |
| 癸卯 | fortieth year J4 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 1963 or 2023 | |
| 卯榫 | mortise and tenon (slot and tab forming a carpenter's joint) | |
| 榫卯 | mortise and tenon |
Sound family
These characters use 卯 as their sound component — compare how they read.