(mái) - to bury, to cover over in Mandarin
máiTraditional: 埋
Translation
to bury, to cover over
Word origin
土 (earth) beside 里 (lǐ) as the phonetic element; older forms show an animal laid in a pit, giving the sense of putting something under the ground.
- Origin
- phono-semantic
- Root
- 土 (earth) + 里 (lǐ, phonetic)
Stroke order
埋
Examples
。
They buried the box under the tree.
骨。
That dog likes burying bones.
雪。
The heavy snow buried the whole road.
。
He buried his face in his hands.
。
The matter stayed buried for many years.
埋 (mái) is to put something under the ground or under a covering: treasure, cables, bones, a body. It usually takes 在 plus a place (埋在院子里) or the resultative 住 (埋住) when the covering is complete.
Figurative uses follow the same picture. 埋头 is to have your head down in work, 埋没 is to leave a talent unrecognised, and a fact can be 埋 for years before it comes out. Burying the dead has its own compound, 埋葬.
Two traps. There is a second reading, mán, which only appears in 埋怨 (to grumble at someone), and it has nothing to do with burying. And 埋 is not the verb for planting: seeds go in with 种, and 埋 would suggest you were hiding them rather than hoping they would come up.
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埋: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "埋" (to bury, to cover over): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 48.