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谋害 (móu hài) — to conspire to murder; to plot against someone's life

Definition

谋害 means to plot someone's death — the focus is the murderous intent and the target, not the scheme itself. Unlike 阴谋 ('conspiracy' / 'to conspire'), which centers on the secret plan, 谋害 always has a victim.

verb
to conspire to murderto plot against someone's life

Examples

  • ，谋害。
    Tā wèi le qián, jìng rán móu hài le zì jǐ de péng you.
    For money, he actually plotted to murder his own friend.
  • 谋害。
    Nà xiē rén tōu tōu de móu hài nà wèi jì zhě.
    Those people secretly plotted to murder that journalist.
  • 谋害。
    Jǐng chá fā xiàn yǒu rén shì tú móu hài tā.
    The police discovered someone tried to murder her.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

谋móuplot
害hàiharm

谋 (plot) and 害 (harm) combine: someone plots to harm another.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 謀; 谋 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
言言yán
Sound part声符shēngfú
某
某mǒu謀móu
Same sound today

The traditional form 謀 uses 言 to show it relates to speech and 某 to show its sound; the simplified 谋 is a later shorthand.

Open 谋 →

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
宀宀mián
口口kǒu
Sound part声符shēngfú
丯
丯jiè害hài
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

害 was borrowed purely for its sound. Its old picture, possibly a house rafter, is unrelated to harm.

Open 害 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Crime & Police

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.