矛 máo spear

spear; lance

How it came to be

象形 · Pictogram

A drawing of the thing it means.

The oldest form is a bamboo spear with a ring in the middle.

Noun "spear", but in modern Chinese it survives mainly inside 矛盾 (máodùn) "contradiction, conflict": one of the most common abstract nouns in the language, used for anything from logical contradictions to interpersonal conflicts (他们之间有矛盾 "there's friction between them").
矛头 (máotóu) "spearhead" is used figuratively for the target of criticism: 矛头指向... "the criticism is aimed at...".
自相矛盾 (zìxiāng-máodùn) "to contradict oneself" is the standard idiom for inconsistency in an argument.