HSK 5 · Objects

玻璃 bōli “glass” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 玻璃 means

  1. glass

Measure word 张 zhāng or 块 kuài · 一张玻璃 yì zhāng bōli

How to say 玻璃

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale玻bō1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own璃lineutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

玻璃 in a sentence

  1. 玻璃是谁发明的？

    Bōli shì shéi fāmíng de?

    Who invented glass?

    Sentence #4540574 from Tatoeba

  2. 她把鼻子贴在玻璃上。

    Tā bǎ bízi tiē zài bōli shàng.

    She pressed her nose against the glass.

    Sentence #8463527 from Tatoeba

  3. 不要踩在碎玻璃上。

    Búyào cǎi zài suì bōli shàng.

    Don’t step on the broken glass.

    Sentence #844442 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 玻璃 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 玻 (bō) with each of its parts in a different colour
玻bō
  • 王king · wángMeaning part
  • 皮skin · píSound part

王 hints at the meaning (king); 皮 (pí) hints at the sound. Compare it with bō.

The character 璃 (li) with each of its parts in a different colour
璃liTaiwan pr.
  • 王king · wángMeaning part
  • 离rare beast · chīSound part

王 hints at the meaning (king); 离 (chī) hints at the sound. Compare it with li.

How to write 玻璃

玻 9 strokes · 璃 14 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

玻璃 (bōli) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 玻璃 (bōli). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 玻璃

More words: Objects & Materials

被子bèizi · quilt布bù · cloth尺子chǐzi · ruler (measuring instrument)抽屉chōuti · drawer窗帘chuānglián · window curtains装备zhuāngbèi · equipment子弹zǐdàn · bullet钻石zuànshí · diamond

FAQs

玻璃 (bōli) means “glass”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it bōli: bō with a 1st tone, then li with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 玻璃 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Use 张 (zhāng) or 块 (kuài). For example, one glass is 一张玻璃 (yì zhāng bōli).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type boli with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 玻璃 from the suggestions. Typing boli into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
玻璃 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.