虻

méng
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 horsefly
  2. 2 gadfly

Examples

HSK 7-9
Yì zhī méng dīng le niú de bèi, niú bùtíng de shuǎi wěiba.
A horsefly bit the ox on the back, and it kept flicking its tail.
HSK 7-9
Mǔ méng xī rén hé shēngchù de xuè.
Female horseflies suck the blood of people and livestock.

Tips

usage
虻 is a large biting fly. The everyday word is 牛虻 (literally 'ox-fly', the horsefly). Only the female bites mammals for blood; the compound 蚊虻 lumps it with mosquitoes as bloodsucking pests.

Components

radical
虫 chóng
insect; worm
The insect radical 虫 marks 虻 as a flying bug, the same radical found in 蚊 mosquito and 蝇 fly.
phonetic
亡 wáng
to die; to flee
Right is 亡, an old phonetic that shifted to méng. The fuller traditional form wrote two 虫 over 亡; the modern shape keeps just one insect plus the sound element.

Stroke Order

虻 méng