HSK 1 · Common Objects

猫 māo “cat” in Chinese

Traditional 貓

What 猫 means

  1. cat
  2. (dialect) to hide oneself
  3. (loanword) (coll.) modem

How to say 猫

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale猫māo1st tone, high and level

猫 in a sentence

  1. 我在找我的猫。

    Wǒ zài zhǎo wǒ de māo.

    I’m looking for my cat.

    Sentence #10649049 from Tatoeba

  2. 我喜欢他的猫。

    Wǒ xǐhuan tā de māo.

    I like his cat.

    Sentence #12554579 from Tatoeba

  3. 她很喜欢猫。

    Tā hěn xǐhuan māo.

    She adores cats.

    Sentence #4080218 from Tatoeba

How 猫 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 猫 (māo) with each of its parts in a different colour
猫māocat 只)
  • 犭dog form of 犬 · quǎnMeaning part
  • 苗sprouts · miáoSound part

犭 hints at the meaning (dog); 苗 (miáo) hints at the sound. Compare it with māo.

Memory aidAnimal 犭 with 苗 (miáo) for the sound, close to a cat's “miaow”.

How to write 猫

猫 11 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

猫 (māo) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 猫 (māo). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 猫

Words with 猫

熊猫xióngmāo · panda大熊猫dàxióngmāo · giant panda

More words: Everyday Things

电影diànyǐng · movie飞机fēijī · aeroplane出租车chūzūchē · taxi天气tiānqì · weather狗gǒu · dog东西dōngxi · thing字zì · character汉语Hànyǔ · Mandarin (Han language)

In the Chinese zodiac

狗gǒu · Year of the Dog

猫 has 犭 on the left, the side form of 犬 (dog).

FAQs

猫 (māo) means “cat” or “(dialect) to hide oneself”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it māo: māo with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 猫 is written 貓. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type mao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 猫 from the suggestions. Typing mao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
猫 is an HSK 1 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.