美
beautiful; very satisfactory; good; to beautify; to be pleased with oneself
9 strokes
Dict coverage rank #141 U+7F8E
How 美 is formed
Ideographic compound (会意字)
A person 大 wearing an elegant crown 羊
How to remember it
beautiful · Heisig RSH #529
大 large + 羊 sheep
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Characters built with 美 as their sound component
These characters all use 美 (měi) as their phonetic component — compare how they read:
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 美 sound component | měi | beautiful, pretty; pleasing |
| 镁 | měi | magnesium |
Words containing 美
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 大美人 | dà měi rén | gorgeous-looking woman |
| 美国国会 | Měi guó Guó huì | US Congress |
| 美国人 | Měi guó rén | American; American person; American people; CL:個|个[ge4] |
| 拉美西斯 | Lā měi xī sī | Rameses (name of pharaoh) |
| 天公不作美 | tiān gōng bù zuò měi | Heaven is not cooperating (idiom); the weather is not favorable for the planned activity |
| 国美电器 | Guó měi Diàn qì | GOME Electrical Appliances (founded in Beijing, 1987) |
| 美人 | měi rén | beautiful woman; belle |
| 国美 | Guó měi | GOME, electronics chain founded in Beijing in 1987 |
| 美国 | Měi guó | United States; USA; US |
| 成人之美 | chéng rén zhī měi | (idiom) beauty of helping others succeed; act of helping sb fulfill their wish |
| 中美 | Zhōng Měi | China-US |
| 中美 | Zhōng měi | Central America |
| 美中 | Měi Zhōng | US-China |
| 美学 | měi xué | aesthetics |
| 美心 | Měi xīn | Maxine (name) |
| 天公作美 | tiān gōng zuò měi | Heaven is cooperating (idiom); the weather is favorable for the planned activity (a variat… |
| 美国交会 | Měi guó Jiāo huì | abbr. for 美國證券交易委員會|美国证券交易委员会, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) |
| 拉美 | Lā Měi | Latin America; abbr. for 拉丁美洲 |
| 美白 | měi bái | to whiten (the skin or teeth) |
| 美化 | měi huà | to make more beautiful; to decorate; embellishment |