Emaki · all 1,500 words

無駄

むだ

wasteful, useless

Mnemonic

A packhorse 駄 loaded up and walked all that way through the mud for nothing 無. Whatever was in the bags, nobody wanted any of it: むだ.

Worth knowing

Shares 駄 with 駄目, no good. むだ is the effort wasted, だめ is the verdict.

Built from

nothing, without
A thicket of strokes over 灬 fire, the lot of it burnt away to nothing.
packhorse, worthless
馬 horse + 大 big

Words sharing these kanji

nonexistent, not being unreasonable, impossible safely, peacefully to be lost, to be used up ignoring, disregarding naught, nothing, without silence, muteness no good

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Emaki is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, Kaishi 1.5k or its authors. The word, reading and meaning come from the Kaishi 1.5k deck, used with their permission. The mnemonic, the note and the kanji breakdown are original work, published under CC BY-SA 4.0.