méng

(bound form) to sprout; to bud

(coll.) cute; adorable (orthographic borrowing from Japanese 萌え "moe", affection for an anime or manga character); variant of 氓[meng2]

grass (艹) + bright (明) = to sprout; cute

艹 anchors the meaning in plant life — something green pushing through the soil. 明 mainly lends the sound méng; the sprout idea comes entirely from the grass radical.

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BrightPhonetic
GrassSemantic

春天到了,树上开始出新芽。

chūn tiān dào le,shù shang kāi shǐ méng chū xīn yá。

Spring has come, and new buds have started to sprout on the trees.

这只小猫的样子真的太了,大家都喜欢它。

zhè zhī xiǎo māo de yàng zi zhēn de tài méng le,dà jiā dōu xǐ huān tā。

This little cat looks so cute that everyone likes it.

Words with 萌

萌发

méng fā

to sprout

防患未萌

fáng huàn wèi méng

to prevent a disaster before the event (idiom); to nip sth in the bud

呆萌

dāi méng

endearingly silly

复萌

fù méng

to germinate again

杜渐防萌

dù jiān fáng méng

to nip in the bud

故态复萌

gù tài fù méng

to revert to old ways

旧态复萌

jiù tài fù méng

see 故態復萌|故态复萌[gu4 tai4 fu4 meng2]

萌动

méng dòng

to sprout

萌古

méng gǔ

(archaic) Mongol

萌娃

méng wá

cute little kid

萌新

méng xīn

(neologism) (slang) newbie

萌渚岭

méng zhǔ lǐng

Mengzhu mountain range between south Hunan and Guangxi

More characters with 艹