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Kanji Detail for 美 - "beautiful, beauty"

美

  • Meaning

    美 means "beautiful, beauty."

    1. Beautiful - Pleasing to the senses.

    2. Beauty - Aesthetic excellence.

    3. Delicious - Pleasing to taste.

    4. Praise - To commend; to admire.

  • Words using 美

    • 美術 びじゅつ Listen art; fine arts
    • 美術館 びじゅつかん Listen art museum; art gallery
    • 美人 びじん Listen beautiful woman; (a) beauty; belle
    • 美容 びよう Listen beauty; good figure; (beautiful) appearance
    • 美女 びじょ Listen beautiful woman
    • 美術展 びじゅつてん Listen art exhibition
    • 美学 びがく Listen esthetics; aesthetics
    • 優美 ゆうび Listen grace; refinement; elegance

  • Four-character idioms with 美

    • 美辞麗句 びじれいく Listen flowery words; rhetorical flourishes
    • 八方美人 はっぽうびじん Listen everybody's friend; people pleaser; person who is affable to everybody
    • 美人薄命 びじんはくめい Listen beauty and fortune seldom go together; the beautiful die young
    • 美味佳肴 びみかこう Listen delicacies; epicurean dishes
    • 美酒佳肴 びしゅかこう Listen fine wines and prized delicacies
    • 耽美主義 たんびしゅぎ Listen aestheticism

  • Origin of 美

    大, large, under 羊, sheep: a big, plump sheep — the finest offering one could bring to the gods. Beauty began as the quality of a perfect gift.

    How to remember it: A big 大 sheep 羊 — the fattest, finest one of the flock, chosen as an offering: beautiful.

    Sources: en.wiktionary.org · mojinavi.com

  • Tattoo check: 美

    • Verified meaning: beautiful, beauty
    • Official Jōyō kanji — a standard character every Japanese reader recognises
    • Used in real Japanese given names (read うまし, きよし, ちゅら, はる)

    A single kanji rarely maps one-to-one onto an English word. Read the meanings and associations above as a set — a character that fits the dictionary definition can still carry a connotation you did not intend.

  • Name readings of 美

    Given names 美(うまし)Listen 美(きよし)Listen 美(ちゅら)Listen 美(はる)Listen 美(はるみ)Listen 美(び)Listen 美(みい)Listen 美(みき)Listen

    Surnames 美(びき)Listen 美(み)Listen 美(みあ)Listen 美(みさき)Listen

  • Compare with other kanji that mean the same thing:

  • Dictionary Citations

    The meaning above is based on the following sources:

    KANJIDIC2 A comprehensive Japanese-English kanji dictionary

    beauty; beautiful

    Unihan Unicode Han Database for CJK characters

    beautiful, pretty; pleasing

    CC-CEDICT A Chinese-English dictionary

    (bound form) the Americas (abbr. for 美洲[Mei3 zhou1]); (bound form) USA (abbr. for 美國|美国[Mei3 guo2])

    Make Me a Hanzi Open-source Chinese character data

    beautiful, pretty; pleasing

    XSZD Xuéshēng Zìdiǎn (學生字典) - Student's Dictionary

    External goodness. All things encountered that give a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction are called 美 (beautiful). Such as 美術 (fine arts). | To praise. Such as the Preface to the Odes praising the Earl of Shao, praising Duke Huan of Qi, and such. | A country name. Abbreviation for the United States of America. In North America, south of Canada. | A continent name. Abbreviation for America. Divided into two parts: North America and South America. | To advance goodness. To guide. | Pickled meat. When the Liao ruler Yelü Deguang died

  • Onyomi

    tip

    bi(ビ) ビ

    mi(ミ) ミ

  • Kunyomi

    tip

    utsuku.shii(うつく-しい) うつく-しい

  • Strokes

    tip

    9 strokes

  • Radical

    tip

    羊 (hitsuji・hitsujihen)

  • Related Keywords

    beautiful beauty delicious admirable praise splendid pretty aesthetic alluring attractive charm elegant exquisite gorgeous graceful handsome lovely loveliness ravishing stunning comely winsome

Sentences including 美

  • Many beautiful flowers bloom in spring.

  • I saw some very beautiful scenes.

  • The curtains make this room beautiful.

  • She was a beauty in her day.

  • Their garden is full of very beautiful flowers all the year round.

  • One of the most beautiful animals is a cat.

  • She is no less beautiful than her sister.

  • She is rich , and what is better , very beautiful.

  • There is nothing to compare with her beauty.

  • She is a woman of great beauty.

Sentences from Japanese classical masterpieces

More kanji with the radical 羊 (hitsuji・hitsujihen)

See all kanji with this radical →

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