蒙冤 (méng yuān) — to suffer an injustice, to be wronged (formal, often in legal contexts)

Definition

Formal/literary verb meaning 'to be wronged / suffer an injustice', often in legal or historical contexts. Similar to 冤枉 but 蒙冤 is more written and emphasizes being a victim of injustice.

verb
to suffer an injusticeto be wronged (formal, often in legal contexts)

Examples

  • 蒙冤。
    Tā yīn wèi zhèng jù bù zú ér méng yuān rù yù.
    He was wrongfully imprisoned due to insufficient evidence.
  • 。
    Zhè wèi lǎo rén céng jīng méng guò yí cì yuān.
    This elderly person once suffered an injustice.
  • 蒙冤。
    Lì shǐ shàng yǒu xǔ duō méng yuān de gù shi.
    There are many stories of people being wronged in history.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

蒙méngsuffer
冤yuāninjustice

蒙 and 冤 combine to mean suffering an injustice.

Characters in this word

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú
艹Written in full as艸cǎograss
Sound part声符shēngfú
冡
冡měng蒙méng
Same sound today

蒙 combines 艹 (grass) with 冡, which supplies the sound.

Open 蒙 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

The shape of 冤 is built from two parts: 冖, a cover, and 兔, a rabbit.

Open 冤 →

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