Chinese Character Wiki
亡

wáng

death

Original meaning: 

tip of a blade

Depicts the tip of a knife blade (刀). Similar in origin to 方. Based on the original meaning "tip of a blade", now written as 芒. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components
刀 iconic component

刀  Iconic component

dāo

  

knife

◎ iconic component

◎  Iconic component

  

characterless component

Depicts the tip of a knife.

Evolution

亡 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
亡 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
亡 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
亡 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
亡 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

亡  

wáng

death, destroyed; lose, perish; to die; to lose; to be gone; to flee; deceased

亡 (亾) 

wáng

old variant of 亡[wáng]

Most common words with 亡
Freq.
Word
Meaning

死亡

to die

伤亡

casualties

亡

to die

身亡

to die

逃亡

to flee

Component uses

Meaning component in 3 characters (2 verified)

丧 喪 盲

Sound component in 15 characters (8 verified)

望 忙 忘 丧 喪 芒 罔 巟 盲 妄 氓 邙 虻 肓 汒

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*maŋ

mjang

wáng

flee; disappear; die


Statistics

HSK level 6

Appears in 40.8297% of movies

889th most common character in movies

957th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

3

Unicode

U+4EA1

Shuowen

“亡，逃也。从入，从。”


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