Taxonomy of meanings for 舞:　　

  • 舞 wǔ (OC: maʔ MC: mio) 文甫切 上 廣韻：【歌舞左傳曰舞所以節八音而行八風也周禮曰樂師掌國學之政以教國子小舞也山海經曰帝後八子始爲舞又姓出何氏姓苑 】
    • DANCE
      • nabacta dance, dancing; dancing activities
      • v[adN]master of pantomimes
      • viactOBI 4: dance (for rain); generally: dance　(also occasionally said of animals like cranes)
      • vtoNdance to (a piece of poetry/music)
      • vtoNobject=ornamentsdance with N as ornaments
      • nabkind of danceCH
      • vi|nabactdanceCH
      • npost-NN=human, pluraldance characterised by NDS
      • generalised> MOVE
        • (late colloquial) generalised> DO
          • specifically: as in dance, swords etc> WIELD
              • feature of> QUICK
                • figurative: affect playfully> TEASE

              Additional information about 舞

              說文解字: 【舞】，樂也，用足相背。从舛、無聲。 【文撫切】 【𦏶(𦐀)】，古文舞从羽、亡。 〔小徐本作「從羽、亡聲。」〕

                Criteria
              • DANCE

                1. There is only one common word for dancing, wǔ4 舞, and this focusses mainly to the movement of the arms.

                2. Dào 蹈 focusses mainly on the movements of the feet in dancing. Cf. 手舞足蹈 "dance with one's arms and dance with one's feet".

                3. Yuè 樂 is sometimes used to refer specifically to dancing accompanied by music.

                Word relations
              • Assoc: (DANCE)/
              • Oppos: (DANCE)歌/SING The current general word for singing a song is gē 歌.