What 毮 means
It means to pluck or pull something away. In Japanese, 毮 is a rare kanji spelling of むしる, used for pulling grass, hair, feathers, or other attached material away.
The verb is older than this spelling. A dated example from 970–999 describes pulling cotton apart; another, from c.1128, describes plucking skin. Those dates belong to the verb, not necessarily this written form.
The verb later broadened to include pulling meat from bones, forcibly taking money, and extracting information. These are extensions of むしる, not different readings of 毮.
Is 毮 the same as 毟?
They are variant spellings of むしる. Japanese references parse 毮 as 毟 with the element 扌 added on the left. They classify 毮 as a kokuji—a character created in Japan.
Taiwan’s character database also lists the Mandarin reading mǒu, roughly “mou” with a falling-rising tone. This is a Chinese-language reading, separate from the Japanese むしる.
Rare in ordinary Japanese writing; むしる is clearer unless you are preserving a source spelling.
A box or changed outline points to font coverage, not a different reading.
Who writes 毮
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Don't confuse it with
2
Related characters
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Combination ideas
3Questions people ask
1Why does 毮 show as a box?
It is a font-coverage issue, not another character or reading. A Taiwan character database lists it in default fonts for Windows 10 and later; other typefaces can still show a box or a different outline.
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How to type or find 毮
- Search it as
- 毮 meaning · 毮 vs 毟 · mushiru · 毮 Japanese meaning · 毮 origin · how to type 毮 · 毮 font box
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
毮\6BEECodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.