亡

wáng
#955 most
frequent character
to die, to lose, to be gone

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

亡 began as a picture of a knife with a mark at the tip, so it first meant the tip of a blade. Read wáng, 'leave' was borrowed for its sound; that grew to die and to forget. Read wú, 'have not' was borrowed for its sound.

Drawn as: knife with tip mark

亡 as a component in other characters

meaning1 character
盲
sound12 characters
望忙忘盲妄芒氓邙罔虻肓汒
picture1 character
忘

Ask DeepSeek

Same Characters, Different Readings

亡wáng
old variant of 亡[wang2]

Homophones

王wáng
king, monarch, head, chief

Your word lists

Sign in to add this word to your private lists.