Chinese Character Wiki
望

wàng

to look at

Pictograph of a person standing up (𡈼) and gazing at the moon (月). 亡 is a sound component.

Components
亡 sound component

亡  Sound component

wáng

  

death

月 iconic component

月  Iconic component

yuè

  

moon

𡈼 iconic component

𡈼  Iconic component

tǐng

  

stand upright

Evolution

望 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
望 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
望 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
望 Clerical script Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)

Clerical script

Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)
望 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

望  

wàng

to look at, look forward; to hope, expect; full moon; to hope; to expect; to visit; to gaze (into the distance); to look towards; towards

望 (朢) 

wàng

15th day of month (lunar calendar); old variant of 望[wàng]

Most common words with 望
Freq.
Word
Meaning

希望

to wish for

失望

disappointed

望

full moon

愿望

desire

渴望

to thirst for

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*maŋ

mjang

wàng

look at from a distance

*maŋ-s

mjangH

wàng

look at from a distance


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 96.1076% of movies

224th most common character in movies

326th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

11

Unicode

U+671B

Shuowen

“望，出亡在外，望其還也。从亡，朢省聲。”


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