末

See also: 未 and 禾

Translingual

Stroke order

Etymology

Ideogram (指事): a tree (木) with its top highlighted with an extra stroke, implying the meaning of “apex”; contrast 本. (Alternatively, with fully developed fruit; contrast 未.)

Han character

末 (radical 75 木+1, 5 strokes, cangjie input 木十 (DJ), four-corner 5090₀)

1. final, last, end
2. close
3. posterity
4. powder
5. tip

Antonyms

• 本 未

Derived characters

• 抹 茉

Related characters

• 木 未

Descendants

• ま
• マ

References

• KangXi: page 509, character 6
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 14420
• Dae Jaweon: page 891, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1150, character 2
• Unihan data for U+672B

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Chinese

		-
simp. and trad.		末

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): mò (mo⁴)

  (Zhuyin): ㄇㄛˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): mut⁶
• Min Nan (POJ): bo̍at

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: mò
    • Zhuyin: ㄇㄛˋ
    • Wade-Giles: mo⁴
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: moh
    • IPA ^(key): /mu̯ɔ⁵¹/

    • (file)

• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: mut⁶
    • Yale: muht
    • Cantonese Pinyin: mut⁹
    • IPA ^(key): /muːt̚²/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: bo̍at
    • Tâi-lô: bua̍t
    • IPA (Taipei): /buat̚⁴/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /buat̚¹²¹/

Middle Chinese pronunciation (末, reconstructed)
Character (末), Pronunciation 1/1
Initial: 明 (4) Final: 末 Division: I			Openness: Closed Tone: Checked (Ø)			Fanqie: 莫撥切
Zhengzhang Shangfang	Bernard Karlgren	Li Rong	Pan Wuyun	Edwin Pulleyblank	Wang Li	Shao Rongfen
/muɑt̚/	/muɑt̚/	/muɑt̚/	/mʷɑt̚/	/mwat̚/	/muɑt̚/	/muɑt̚/

Old Chinese pronunciation (末, reconstructed)
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character								Modern Beijing (Pinyin)								Middle Chinese								Old Chinese								English
末								mò								‹ mat ›								/*mˤat/								end of a branch
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system: Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character					No.					Phonetic component					Rime group					Rime subdivision					Corresponding MC rime					Old Chinese					Notes
末					9223					末					月					1					末					/*maːd/

Compounds

• 芥末 (mustard)

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Japanese

Kanji

末

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• On: まつ (matsu), ばつ (batsu)
• Kun: すえ (sue)

Compounds

• 週末 (しゅうまつ) (shūmatsu, “weekend”)

Noun

末 (hiragana すえ, romaji sue)

1. end, last
2. last child, youngest child
3. triviality

末 (hiragana まつ, romaji matsu)

1. the end
2. powder

末 (hiragana うら, romaji ura)

1. (archaic) tip, top end

末 (hiragana うれ, romaji ure)

1. (archaic) the trunk or leaves of a tree
2. (archaic) the tips of the branches of a tree

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Korean

Hanja

末 (mal) (hangeul 말, revised mal, McCune-Reischauer mal, Yale mal)

1. (끝): the end, last, low
2. (가루): flour, powder
3. (허드레): something coarse, improper, inferior, trivial
   • 1431: 鄕藥採取月令 十二月 (향약채취월령 십이월, hyang-yag-chaechwi-wolryeong sib-iwol):

     芰實鄕名末栗 (기실향명말밤, gisil-hyangmyeong-malbam, "The folk name of the water caltrop fruit is coarse chestnut.")

Compounds

end, last 末端 (말단, maldan) 末年 (말년, malnyeon) 年末 (연말, yeonmal) 終末 (종말, jongmal)

flour, powder 紛末 (분말, bunmal)

something coarse 末栗 (말밤, malbam)

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Vietnamese

Han character

末 (mạt, mất, mặt, mết, mệt, mượt)

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