Meaning & readings
imitation, copy, mock
Origin
The character 模 combines wood (木) on the left as a meaning classifier, indicating this word relates to something made of material, with 莫 on the right as a sound hint for pronunciation. The connection to imitation likely arose because wooden molds or patterns were used to shape or copy forms in craftsmanship. Over time, the character's meaning expanded from the physical idea of a mold to the broader sense of copying or imitating anything. The wooden mold element gave the character its initial association with reproduction and pattern-making.
Components
- 木
- 莫
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 14
- Kangxi radical
- 75
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #668 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+06A21