How to Write 眳 (míng) — Meaning “to look or gaze”

Imagine you see a famous person (名) and you cannot stop staring at them with your eyes (目) — that act of staring is 眳. The name is so impressive that you fix your gaze on them.

Write the left radical 目 first, then 名 on the right. Keep 目 narrow and its four horizontal strokes evenly spaced; on 名, start with a short left-falling stroke, then write the 口 box, and finish with the bottom horizontal stroke. A common mistake is making 名 too wide or mismatching the height of the two sides.

眳 has 名 on the right, meaning "to gaze"; 相 has 木 (tree) on the right, meaning "mutual" or "appearance". 盹 has 屯 (to gather) on the right and means "to doze" or "nod off". So 眳 is about active looking, 相 is about mutual seeing, and 盹 is about sleepy eyes.

眳 is a rare, literary character not part of everyday vocabulary; it appears mainly in classical texts or poetry to describe a distant, focused gaze. It is not in the HSK lists, so learners will only encounter it in advanced or historical Chinese materials.

Common words containing 眳 include: 眳眇 (míng miǎo) — to look into the distance; 眳眳 (míng míng) — gazing; 眳视 (míng shì) — to gaze at.