Hangul Letter Mieum

It is Korean’s /m/ consonant, called mieum. In ordinary writing, it combines with vowels and other consonants inside syllable blocks; by itself, it is a letter, not a complete word.

Hangul was created in 1443, and its explanatory book was published in 1446. The new script was designed to represent Korean speech directly, which differed from Chinese. ㅁ belongs to that planned writing system; it did not begin as a standalone pictogram.

Why does ㅁ look like a box?

Its square shape represents lips closed around the mouth. Hangul’s basic consonant shapes link letter forms to speech organs, so this shape hints at how /m/ is made.

The basic labial letter ㅁ provided the starting form for ㅂ and ㅍ, which add strokes. A record from 1527 gives the name as 眉音; the modern name 미음 was standardized in 1933. The letter’s place in the alphabet also shifted to the familiar sequence ㄱㄴㄷㄹㅁ.

What does ㅁ mean in Korean chat?

A lone ㅁ has no fixed chat translation; read its context. In a consonant-only abbreviation, it is one initial, so the rest of the string matters.

A 2019 study of Korean instant messages describes consonant-initial shorthand as a way to type efficiently. Read the surrounding Korean and the other initials before deciding what the message means.