霉

méi
#2,420 most
frequent character
mold, mildew, to become moldy

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

霉 has 雨, rain, as the meaning part and 每 měi as the sound part, differing in tone. Rain suggests the first meaning, black mold on things left out in it. It then came to mean mold or mildew generally.

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Same Characters, Different Readings

霉méi
variant of 霉[mei2]

Homophones

HSK 1
没méi
(negative prefix for verbs)
HSK 6
枚méi
"classifier for coins, rings, badges, pearls, sporting medals, rockets, satellites etc"
煤méi
coal
梅méi
plum, plum flower
媒méi
medium, intermediary, matchmaker

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