Kilo Lingo

(měi lì) - beautiful, pretty in Mandarin

měi

Traditional: 美麗

Line drawing of 美丽
Coloured illustration of 美丽
HSK 3
#829 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

beautiful, pretty

Word origin

美丽 (měilì) 'beautiful' joins 美 'beautiful' with 丽 'lovely, fine'. 美 depicts a large (大) figure crowned with sheep (羊) horns or feathers, an old emblem of fineness; 丽 originally drew a pair of matched deer antlers.

Origin
compound
Root
美 (beautiful) + 丽 (lovely, fine)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 美

Stroke order for 丽

Examples

This girl is very beautiful.

She is very beautiful.

This city is very beautiful.

This is a beautiful city.

shuāng

She has a pair of beautiful eyes.

美丽 (měi lì) means beautiful, pretty. It is used as an adjective in everyday Mandarin speech.

Where this fits

Used in

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Mandarin · Free printables

美丽: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "美丽" (beautiful, pretty): 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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This word is part of lesson 17.