Translingual

Stroke order (cursive)

Han character

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

Derived characters

• 㒇, 㷻, 憮, 𠓺, 𤏠, 𥼣, 𨖴, 𨶭

References

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

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 無
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Simplified from 舞 (舛 → 灬) – removal of 舛 (character used for sound). (Compare 可 from 奇.)

In the source character 舞 (OC *maʔ, “dance”), top component graphically originally a figure with outstretched arms holding two animal hides: 革 + 大 + 革.

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, Hakka or 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。 / 我无零星钱。 [Min Nan]  ―  Góa bô lân-san-chîⁿ. [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  I don't have any change.

2. (literary, 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, Min) have not

   我無共伊講。 / 我无共伊讲。 [Min Nan]  ―  Góa bô kā i kóng. [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  I didn't tell him.

4. (literary, Hakka or Min) Interrogative particle.
5. (Hakka, Min) if not; otherwise (placed at the start of a sentence)
6. ^†regardless of, no matter whether
7. ^†nothing, nil

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

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

   無情 / 无情  ―  wúqíng  ―  heartless

   無理 / 无理  ―  wúlǐ  ―  unreasonable

   無邊 / 无边  ―  wúbiān  ―  unlimited

Synonyms

Compounds

Etymology 2

From Sanskrit नमस् ‎(namas).

Pronunciation

Definitions

無

1. Only used in 南無／南无.

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

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

Readings

• Goon: む (mu)
• Kan’on: ぶ (bu)
• Tōon: も (mo)
• Kun: な.い (無い, na.i)

Compounds

Noun

無 ‎(hiragana む, romaji mu)

1. nothing, nothingness
2. (Buddhism): The null set: neither yes nor no (in response to a koan or other question that mistakenly assumes an affirmative or negative answer).

Prefix

無 ‎(hiragana む, romaji mu-)

1. non-, un-

無 ‎(hiragana ぶ, romaji bu-)

1. non-, un-

Korean

Hanja

Yakja (略字, simplified cursive) form of 無.

無 • ‎(mu) (hangeul 무, revised mu, McCune-Reischauer mu, Yale mu)

1. 무 (mu, “nothing”)
2. 무 (mu, “no”)
3. (Buddhism) 무 (mu, “neither yes nor no”) (in response to a koan or a question that mistakenly assumes an affirmative or negative answer)

Vietnamese

Han character

無 (vô, mô, thủy)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.