HSK 3.0 Level 4 · Adjectives

美 měi “beautiful” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 美 means

  1. beautiful
  2. pretty
  3. good
  4. very satisfactory
  5. to beautify
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to be pleased with oneself
  • (bound form) the Americas (abbr. for 美洲)
  • (bound form) USA (abbr. for 美国)

How to say 美

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale美měi3rd tone, dipping

美 in a sentence

  1. 从这儿看景色很美。

    Cóng zhèr kàn jǐngsè hěn měi.

    The view from here is beautiful.

    Sentence #1446976 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 这些照片真美。

    Zhèxiē zhàopiàn zhēn měi.

    These photos are really beautiful.

    Sentence #334385 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你母亲年轻的时候一定很美。

    Nǐ mǔqīn niánqīng de shíhou yídìng hěn měi.

    Your mother must have been beautiful when she was young.

    Sentence #886125 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 美 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 美 (měi) with each of its parts in a different colour
美měibeautiful
  • 羊sheep · yáng
  • 大big · dà

How to write 美

美 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 美

Words with 美

美丽měilì · beautiful赞美zànměi · to admire完美wánměi · perfect优美yōuměi · graceful美术měishù · art美观měiguān · attractive美满měimǎn · happy美妙měimiào · wonderful审美shěnměi · aesthetic物美价廉wùměijiàlián · good quality at a low price

More words: Adjectives

正式zhèngshì · formal直接zhíjiē · direct (opposite: indirect 间接)准确zhǔnquè · accurate仔细zǐxì · careful强qiáng · strong整zhěng · whole暗àn · dark薄báo · thin

FAQs

美 (měi) means “beautiful” or “pretty”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 4 word.
Say it měi: měi with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 美 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type mei with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 美 from the suggestions. Typing mei into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
美 is an HSK 3.0 Level 4 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 6 word list. It is not on the older 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.