mu

From Ancient Greek μῦ (mû).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /muː/, /mjuː/
  • Homophone: moo (first pronunciation only)
  • Homophone: mew (second pronunciation only)
• (US) IPA^(key): /mjuː/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

  • Homophone: mew

mu (countable and uncountable, plural mus)

1. The 12th letter of the Modern Greek alphabet.

• mu-meson, muon
• mu-metal

From Japanese 無 (mu, “nothing, neither yes nor no”)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /muː/
  • Homophone: moo
• (US) IPA^(key): /mjuː/, /muː/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

  • Homophone: mew (first pronunciation only)
  • Homophone: moo (second pronunciation only)

mu

1. (Zen Buddhism) Neither yes nor no.
   • 1974, Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:

     Mu means "no thing." Like "Quality" it points outside the process of dualistic discrimination. Mu simply says, "No class; not one, not zero, not yes, not no." [...] It's a great mistake, a kind of dishonesty, to sweep nature's mu answers under the carpet.

   • 1979, Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid:

     Achilles: Oh, but MU is Jōshū’s answer. By saying MU, Jōshū let the other monk know that only by not asking such questions can one know the answer to them.
     Tortoise: Jōshū “unasked” the question. […]
     Achilles: […] And the answer of “MU” here rejects the premises of the question, which are that one or the other must be chosen.

   • 1996, Dan Simmons, "Looking for Kelly Dahl", The Year's Best Science Fiction, page 424:

     "Mu," said Kelly Dahl.

     On one level mu means only yes, but on a deeper level of Zen it was often used by the master when the acolyte asked a stupid, unanswerable or wrongheaded question such as "Does a dog have the Buddha-nature?" The Master would answer only, "Mu," meaning—I say "yes" but mean "no," but the actual answer is: Unask the question.

   • 2002, Norman Waddell and Masao Abe, The Heart of Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō, page 72:

     The Fifth Patriarch's utterance You say mu [Buddha-nature] because Buddha-nature is emptiness articulates clearly and distinctly the truth that emptiness is not "no". In uttering Buddha-nature-emptiness one does not say "half a pound." One does not say "eight ounces." One says "mu."

   • 2010, Joan Price, Sacred Scriptures of the World Religions, page 70:

     A monk once asked Master Joshu, 'Has a dog the Buddha Nature or not?' Joshu said, 'Mu!'

mu (uncountable)

1. (Zen Buddhism) Nothingness; nonexistence; the illusory nature of reality.
   • 2012, Omori, Introduction To Zen Training, →ISBN, page 115:

     That being the case, we should naturally choose to contemplate mu from morning to night, forgetting everything.

   • 2012, Dr Robert Wilkinson, Nishida and Western Philosophy, →ISBN:

     Consequently, though mu is mindlike, the likeness to individual consciousness cannot be pushed very far.

   • 2013, Sean Murphy & ‎Natalie Goldberg, One Bird, One Stone: 108 Contemporary Zen Stories, →ISBN, page xvii:

     The monk posed to Chaoi-chou a question: Does a dog have a buddha nature or not?" Chao-chou, without a moment's hesitation, answered, “Mu." (Translated as "No.")

   • 2013, Maura O'Halloran, Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind, →ISBN:

     If mu is mind, consciousness, it is nothing.

Used to answer a question that if answered with "yes" or "no" would imply something false.

• (nothingness): See also Thesaurus:inexistence

From Mandarin 畝／亩 (mǔ)

mu (plural mu)

1. A unit of surface area, currently equivalent to 666 and 2/3 meters squared.
   • 2007 — Chang Liu, “Peasants and Revolution in Rural China: Rural Political Change in the North China Plain and the Yangzi Delta, 1850-1949”, page 87

     Of 114 village farming families, only ten had more than 30 mu of land and only five had more than 60 mu.

• 'um, -um, UM, um, um-

mu

1. moo (sound made by a cow or bull)

• IPA^(key): [ˈmu]

• Audio

  (file)

mu

1. Singular dative masculine of on

   Řekni mu, že jím. - Tell him, I am eating.

• jemu

mu

1. very

• muchu

• IPA^(key): /my/

mu m (plural mu)

1. mu (Greek letter)

• “mu” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

mu

1. (a) crocodile

• Hanga Hundi Organised Phonology Data (2011)

mu (Mena), mụ (Ikobi)

1. water

• Karl J. Franklin, Comparative Wordlist 1 of the Gulf District and adjacent areas (1975), page 67

From Malay mu, shortened form of kamu, from Proto-Malayic *kamu(ʔ), from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *(i-)kamu, *kamiu, from Proto-Austronesian *(i-)kamu, *kamiu.

• IPA^(key): /mu/

mu

1. you

• Rhymes: -u

mu m or f (invariable)

1. The name of the letter M

mu

1. Rōmaji transcription of む
2. Rōmaji transcription of ム

mu

1. water

• Gisaburō Norikura Kiyose, A Study of the Jurchen Language and Script: Reconstruction and Decipherment (1977)

mu

1. I

mu

1. water

mu

1. old

• Randy Jones, Provisional Kom - English lexicon (2001, Yaoundé, Cameroon)

mu

1. happen

• https://inter.payap.ac.th/wp-content/uploads/linguistics_students/Luk_Hkaw_Thesis2017.pdf

Shortened form of kamu, from Proto-Malayic *kamu(ʔ), from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *(i-)kamu, *kamiu, from Proto-Austronesian *(i-)kamu, *kamiu.

• IPA^(key): /mu/
• Rhymes: -mu, -u

mu

1. you

mu

1. Nonstandard spelling of mū.
2. Nonstandard spelling of mú.
3. Nonstandard spelling of mǔ.
4. Nonstandard spelling of mù.

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /ˈmuː/

mū

1. accusative and genitive of mun

• IPA^(key): /mu/

• jemu, niemu

mu m

1. dative singular mute of on

mu n

1. dative singular mute of ono

• Appendix:Polish pronouns

Onomatopoeic.

mu

1. moo (sound made by cows and bulls)

• (verb) muczeć
• (noun) muczenie

• mu in Polish dictionaries at PWN

• Rhymes: -u

Latin mūlus (“mule”)

mu m (plural mus)

1. mule

• mulo

Onomatopoeic.

• muu, muuu, etc.

mu

1. moo (the call of a cow)

From Old Irish imb (compare Irish um), from Proto-Celtic *ambi (compare Welsh am), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰi (“round about, around”). Cognate with Latin ambi-, Sanskrit अभि (abhí, “towards, over, upon”), Old Persian 𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎹 (abiy, “towards, against, upon”), Old High German umbi, Ancient Greek ἀμφί (amphí, “about, around”) and the first part of Old Armenian ամբ-ողջ (amb-ołǰ, “whole”).

mu

1. about, around

   Bha craobhan mu ghàrradh an taighe. ― There were trees around the house's yard.

2. about, concerning

   Bha sinn a' bruidhinn mu làithean san sgoil againn. ― We were talking about our days at school.

3. about, approximately

   Bidh a' chuairt a' toirt mu thrì uairean. ― The trip will take about three hours.

• Lenites the following word.

• The following prepositional pronouns:

mu (Cyrillic spelling му)

1. to him (clitic dative singular of ȏn (“he”))
2. to it (clitic dative singular of òno (“it”))

Onomatopoeic.

• Rhymes: -u

mu

1. moo (sound of a cow)

• no decir ni mu

mu f (plural múes)

1. Misspelling of mi. (mu, the Greek letter Μ, μ)

• Rhymes: -ʉː

mu

1. moo

mu n

1. moo; the sound of a cow or a bull

• råma

mu

1. Used to form interrogatives.

   Ona bu soruyu sordun mu?

   Did you ask him/her this question?

   Mutlu musun?

   Are you happy?

   Pikniğe gitmiyor muyuz?

   Aren't we going for a picnic?

• Personal suffixes are added to the interrogative particles, as well as the past tense suffixes.
• This form is used when the last vowel of the previous word is "o" or "u". Other forms used with different vowels are: mı?, mi? and mü?

• IPA^(key): /mu/

mu

1. delicious

mu

1. (negation) not

   Mu jna'. - I do not know him/her/it.

• muk'

(particles)

• mu'yuk

• “mu(1)”, “mu(2)” in Laughlin, Robert M. (1975) The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of San Lorenzo Zinacantán. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
• Laughlin, Robert M. [et al.] (1988) The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of Santo Domingo Zinacantán, vol. I. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [mu˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [mʊw˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [mʊw˧˧]

mu (模)

1. pubes, the pubic region
2. the shells of some animals

   Synonym: mai

Borrowed from Spanish muy (“very”).

mu

1. extremely