How to Write 陌 (mò) — Meaning “path / stranger”

Imagine a "hundred" (百) strangers walking along a path (阝) — this connects the meaning of "stranger" with the character's shape. You can also think of a hundred unfamiliar roads, making you feel lost.

Pay attention to the left radical 阝: it should be thin and tall, not too wide, with three strokes (horizontal fold, vertical, vertical). The right part 百 has six strokes; a common mistake is writing the top horizontal too long or forgetting the final vertical stroke.

陌 has the right part 百 (hundred), while 邠 has 分 (divide) and 邡 has 方 (square/direction). Both 邠 and 邡 are rare place names, but 陌 is common in daily words like 陌生 (unfamiliar). Visually, look for the horizontal lines of 百 inside 陌.

陌 most often appears in the words 陌生 (mò shēng, unfamiliar) and 陌生人 (mò shēng rén, stranger) for describing people or places you don't know. The poetic term 阡陌 (qiān mò) refers to the crisscross paths in fields, used in literature or historical contexts.

Common words containing 陌 include: 陌生 (mò shēng) — unfamiliar / strange; 陌生人 (mò shēng rén) — stranger; 阡陌 (qiān mò) — paths between fields; crisscross paths.