無

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

• 㒇, 㷻, 憮, 𠓺, 𤏠, 𥼣, 𨖴, 𨶭

• 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

Historical forms of the character 無
Shang	Western Zhou	Warring States		Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Chu Slip and silk script	Qin slip script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Pictogram (象形) . A man with something long held in both hands. Dancing.

This character is borrowed for “have no”, and the character 舞 is used for the original sense.

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.

無

1. (literary or 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 or 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 or 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 or Hakka or Min) Interrogative particle.

   晚來天欲雪，能飲一杯無？ [Classical Chinese, trad.]
   晚来天欲雪，能饮一杯无？ [Classical Chinese, simp.]

   From: 白居易《問劉十九》

   Wǎn lái tiān yù xuě, néng yǐn yī bēi wú? [Pinyin]

   Night comes and the sky seems like it might snow; could you drink a cup?

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

• (interrogative particle) 未 (wèi), 嗎／吗 (ma), 否 (fǒu)

無

1. Only used in 南無／南无 (nāmó).

• 　“Entry #8588”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (in Chinese and Min Nan), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2011.

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

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

• Go-on: む (mu, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: ぶ (bu, Jōyō)
• Tō-on: も (mo)
• Kun: ない (nai, 無い, Jōyō); なみする (namisuru, 無みする); なみする (namisuru, 無する)

無 (hiragana む, rōmaji 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).

無 (hiragana む, rōmaji mu-)

1. non-, un-

無 (hiragana ぶ, rōmaji bu-)

1. non-, un-

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)

無: Hán Việt readings: vô[1][2][3][4], mô[2]
無: Nôm readings: vô[1][2][4][5], mô[2][6][4]

1. Hán tự form of vô (“without; -less; un-”).