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mōsuǒ · HSK 7
try to find out
🖐️🔦 摸 touch/feel + 索 search = feel-and-search your way = grope, fumble around
Sound: mōsuǒ. The two hand-and-search characters combine into one act: reaching out to feel for something you cannot see, and probing to find it — hence grope, fumble, or try to find out by trial.
摸 — hand radical 扌 + 莫 (mò, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌 signals a meaning related to actions of the hand, while 莫 supplies the sound (originally pronounced closer to 'mò/mō'). The combined character means to touch, feel, or grope, naturally extending the 'hand' sense into tactile exploration.