Chinese word

猫

Pronunciation

Pinyinmāo

Meaning

  • nouncat

Example

我家有一只猫。wǒ jiā yǒu yì zhī māo

My family has a cat.

Illustration for 猫 (cat)

More examples

猫在窗台上晒太阳。māo zài chuāng tái shàng shài tài yáng

The cat is basking in the sun on the windowsill.

Core concept

A small, flexible house animal with sharp claws that hunts mice.

Common phrases

  • 喜欢猫xǐ huān māo

    like cats

  • 一只猫yì zhī māo

    one cat

Similar words

狗gǒu: A four-legged mammal that lives with people and may be kept for guarding or companionship.
动物dòng wù: A living creature that can move by itself.
小猫xiǎo māo: A very young, small cat.

Definition in Chinese

属于猫科的小型哺乳动物，多作为家养宠物，具有灵活的四肢和锋利的爪，能捕捉老鼠等小型动物。shǔ yú māo kē de xiǎo xíng bú rǔ dòng wù duō zuò wéi jiā yǎng chǒng wù jù yǒu líng huó de sì zhī hé fēng lì de zhǎo néng bǔ zhuō láo shǔ děng xiǎo xíng dòng wù

Word origin

猫 (māo, "cat") is a phono-semantic character formed from 犭 (quǎn, "animal") + 苗 (miáo, "seedling"), with 犭 marking the animal meaning and 苗 supplying the sound.

Usage tips

  • Chinese uses the measure word 只 (zhī, "animal classifier") when counting a cat, unlike English, which has no separate classifier.

Opposites

Related words

  • 猫咪māo mīkittynoun
  • 小猫xiǎo māokittennoun

Word lists with this word