漢字Kanji · in Animals & Wildlife
美: beauty, beautiful
⺷ carries the meaning · 大 is drawn in
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Today
Oracle bone and bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Two readings, and the words that use each
ビbi · on'yomi · in compounds
- 美びbeauty
- 美学びがくaesthetics
- 美人びじんbeautiful woman
- 美女びじょbeautiful woman
- 美術館びじゅつかんart museum
- 美容院びよういんbeauty salon
- 美化するびかするbeautify, glorify
- 賛美するさんびするpraise
- 優美なゆうびなgraceful
- 甘美なかんびなsweet
うつくしいutsukushii · kun'yomi · on its own
- 美しいうつくしいbeautiful
Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.
- 美味しいおいしいdelicious
Also read ミ, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Ideogrammic compound (會意)羊 ram or feathers + 大 person
A person (大) wearing a headdress (now written 羊) of feathers or ram's horn.
Source: Wiktionary, 美 (rev. 92529984), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Sheep (羊) + big (大). In ancient times, a "big sheep" was the ultimate symbol of prosperity and "beauty"—it was the biggest and best thing one could own.”
Connections
Also read ビ
7 kanji share this on'yomiAlso read ミ
5 kanji share this on'yomiIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · měi
Same form: 美 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 美 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 美 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin měi most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.