What 勿 means
It means the next action must not happen.
Oracle-bone inscriptions (divination writing carved on bones and turtle shells) show its earliest forms; Western Zhou bronze inscriptions already use 勿 as a prohibition. The shape’s origin is unsettled: one account sees a signal flag used to summon people; another sees a bow with a vibrating string. A 2016 study discusses competing early forms.
In Classical Chinese, 勿 comes before the verb it forbids. Modern Mandarin keeps it in formal notices such as 請勿吸煙 (“please do not smoke”). Japanese 勿れ is the literary なかれ, “do not.”
In Chinese it is formal and directive; in Japanese it is literary. Alone, it reads like a written prohibition.
A lone 勿 can sound like an order, not a casual “no.”
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Who writes 勿
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Don't confuse it with
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How to type or find 勿
- Search it as
- wù · wu · nakare · なかれ · 勿れ · 勿論 · 請勿 · 毋
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
勿\52FFCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.