無

Glyph origin
. A man dancing with something long held in both hands.

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

Etymology 1
Core Sino–Tibetan. From ; cognate with 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬.

Cognate with:



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) is used instead.

See for more on negative particles in Old Chinese.

Definitions

 * 1)  to not have something; there is not ...
 * 2)   not
 * 3)  have not
 * 4)  if not; otherwise placed at the start of a sentence
 * 5)  regardless of; no matter whether
 * 6)  nothing; nil
 * 7) without; -less; un-
 * 1)  have not
 * 2)  if not; otherwise placed at the start of a sentence
 * 3)  regardless of; no matter whether
 * 4)  nothing; nil
 * 5) without; -less; un-
 * 1)  regardless of; no matter whether
 * 2)  nothing; nil
 * 3) without; -less; un-
 * 1)  regardless of; no matter whether
 * 2)  nothing; nil
 * 3) without; -less; un-
 * 1) without; -less; un-
 * 1) without; -less; un-

Kanji

 * 1) nothing
 * 2) nothingness
 * 3) none
 * 4) nil
 * 5) not

Etymology 1
From. The, so likely an earlier borrowing.

Noun

 * 1) nothing, nothingness
 * 2)  mu; the null set: neither yes nor no (in response to a koan or other question that mistakenly assumes an affirmative or negative answer).

Prefix

 * 1) non-, un-

Etymology 2
From. The, so likely a later borrowing.

Prefix

 * 1) non-, un-

Etymology
From.