无故 (wú gù) — without cause or reason, unprovoked

Definition

Literary/written adverb meaning 'without cause or reason' — commonly seen in notices, warnings, or formal contexts (e.g. 无故旷工, 无故缺席). Far more formal than casual alternatives like 随便 or 没事.

adverb

without cause or reasonunprovoked

Easily confused

无敌wú dílook-alikeinvincible, unmatched, without equal

Examples

无故。
Tā wú gù kuàng gōng le sān tiān.
He was absent from work for three days without reason.
无故。
Qǐng bú yào wú gù dǎ duàn bié rén de fā yán.
Please don't interrupt others' speech without cause.
无故，。
Tā wú gù kū le qǐ lái, dà jiā dōu bù zhī dào zěn me le.
She started crying for no reason, and nobody knew what was wrong.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

无wúhave not

故gùcause

无 means have not and 故 means cause, so the sense is without cause.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 無; 无 is its simplified writing.

For the simplified 无, the story is about 無. 無 drew a person dancing with ox tails held in both hands to pray for rain, then was borrowed for 'have no', so the picture does not explain that meaning.

Open 无 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

古攵故

Meaning part形符xíngfú

攵Written in full as攴pū

Sound part声符shēngfú

古

古gǔ故gù

Same sound today

故 uses 古 for the sound and 攵, written in full as 攴, for the meaning.

Open 故 →

Appears in