HSK 2 · Particles

离 lí “away from” in Chinese

Traditional 離

What 离 means

  1. away from, distance from
  2. to leave
  3. to part from
  4. to be away from
  5. (in giving distances) from
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • without (sth)
  • independent of

How to say 离

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale离lí2nd tone, rising

离 in a sentence

  1. 我们学校离公园非常近。

    Wǒmen xuéxiào lí gōngyuán fēicháng jìn.

    Our school is very close to the park.

    Sentence #408485 from Tatoeba

  2. 我家离这儿很远。

    Wǒ jiā lí zhèr hěn yuǎn.

    My house is a long way from here.

    Sentence #407259 from Tatoeba

  3. 离这儿有多远？

    Lí zhèr yǒu duō yuǎn?

    How far is it from here?

    Sentence #335163 from Tatoeba

How 离 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 离 (lí) with each of its parts in a different colour
离líto leave
  • 亠lid · tóu
  • 凶culprit · xiōng
  • 禸track · róu

How to write 离

离 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 离

Words with 离

离开líkāi · leave距离jùlí · distance离婚líhūn · to divorce隔离gélí · to isolate脱离tuōlí · to break away from

More words: Particles & Connectors

和hé · and吧ba · suggestion particle比bǐ · compared to得de · particle linking a verb to how it is done (e.g. 跑得快从cóng · from到dào · to对duì · correct往wǎng · to go (in a direction)

FAQs

离 (lí) means “away from, distance from” or “to leave”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it lí: lí with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 离 is written 離. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type li with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 离 from the suggestions. Typing li into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
离 is an HSK 2 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.