Kilo Lingo

(xiǎo jiě) - Miss, young woman, waitress in Mandarin

xiǎojiě

Traditional: 小姐

Line drawing of 小姐
Coloured illustration of 小姐
HSK 2
#270 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

Miss, young woman, waitress

Word origin

A two-character compound, Miss or young woman. 小 (xiǎo) 'small, young' joins 姐 (jiě) 'elder sister', which has the 女 'woman' radical with 且 (qiě) as phonetic.

Origin
compound
Root
小 (xiǎo, 'young') + 姐 (jiě, 'sister'; 女 woman radical + 且 phonetic)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 小

Stroke order for 姐

Examples

Miss, excuse me...

Who is this young lady?

Waitress!

Excuse me miss, what time is it?

That young lady is very polite.

小姐 (xiǎo jiě) means Miss, young woman, waitress. It is used as a noun in everyday Mandarin speech.

Used in

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This word is part of lesson 6.