帽子
hat; cap
màozi
What does 帽子 mean?
帽子 (màozi) is the everyday noun for 'hat' or 'cap' — any head covering from a baseball cap to a winter beanie to a formal hat. The 子 is a noun-forming suffix carrying no meaning; you may also see 帽 alone in compounds like 草帽 (straw hat), 安全帽 (helmet), or 棒球帽 (baseball cap). The measure word is 顶 (dǐng, literally 'top'), so 'one hat' is 一顶帽子. Two cultural notes for English speakers.
First, 戴帽子 means 'to wear a hat' — Chinese uses 戴 for accessories on the head, wrist, or face, not 穿 (which is for clothes). Second, the idiom 戴绿帽子 ('to wear a green hat') means 'to be cheated on by one's spouse,' so you should never gift a green hat to a Chinese man. The verb to take off a hat is 摘 or 脱.
Character breakdown
hat; cap
noun suffix (no independent meaning here)
Memory hook: The 巾 (cloth) radical on the left tells you 帽 is something cloth-related you put on — namely, a hat.
Measure word for 帽子
Example sentences
今天太阳很大，你应该戴帽子。
Jīntiān tàiyáng hěn dà, nǐ yīnggāi dài màozi.
The sun is strong today, you should wear a hat.
spoken
这顶帽子多少钱？
Zhè dǐng màozi duōshao qián?
How much is this hat?
spoken
他买了一顶红色的帽子。
Tā mǎi le yì dǐng hóngsè de màozi.
He bought a red hat.
neutral
进屋后请把帽子摘下来。
Jìn wū hòu qǐng bǎ màozi zhāi xiàlái.
After entering, please take off your hat.
polite
我的帽子放在哪儿了？
Wǒ de màozi fàng zài nǎr le?
Where did I put my hat?
spoken
Common phrases with 帽子
Synonyms
帽 is the bare root and almost never stands alone in conversation — it appears in compounds like 草帽, 礼帽, 安全帽. Use 帽子 in everyday speech.
Don't confuse 帽子 with
猫 (māo) is 'cat,' first tone, with the 犭(animal) radical. 帽 (mào) is 'hat,' fourth tone, with 巾 (cloth). Common beginner mix-up because of the shared right side and similar sound.
冒 (mào) means 'to emit / risk' (冒险 'take a risk,' 感冒 'catch a cold'). It is the right-hand component of 帽 used on its own. Same pronunciation but a verb, not a noun.