美

Stroke order

Stroke order (Chinese)

Stroke order (Japan)

美 (Kangxi radical 123, 羊+3, 9 strokes, cangjie input 廿土大 (TGK), four-corner 8043₁, composition ⿱𦍌大)

• み

• 𡮔, 𦎡, 𫝥, 𦏄, 𦏒, 𨷑, 媄, 𰌗, 𥈢, 𠸍, 𢱒, 𦝺, 𣮺, 𣈸, 鎂(镁), 𥖺, 𤧞, 𧶾, 渼, 𪹏, 𮊮, 𣖙, 䓺, 羹, 𬗮, 𥻙, 躾, 𠁍, 𡎤, 嵄, 𬒙, 𨺰, 𮠻, 𨸈, 𬮎, 𠝫, 𪻄, 𫖿

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 951, character 10
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 28435
• Dae Jaweon: page 1393, character 17
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3126, character 5
• Unihan data for U+7F8E

Historical forms of the character 美
Shang	Western Zhou
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions

Pictogram (象形) – a person (大) wearing a headdress (now written 羊) of feathers or ram's horn.

The modern form could be considered an ideogrammic compound (會意 / 会意) : 羊 (“ram or feathers”) + 大 (“person”).

See also 敖, 冒, and 免.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *mwaj (“beautiful, well, perfectly”) (STEDT).

According to Schuessler (2007), cognate with Mizo mawi (“beautiful, lovely”), Jingpho moi (“perfectly, beautifully”) as well as Karbi me- (“be good”) and Jingpho cha mai (“good”); the former two items from *moy "beautiful" and the latter from *may "good, well", which were two roots reconstructed separately by Benedict (1972).

美

1. beautiful; pretty; attractive; good-looking

   美人  ―  měirén  ―  beautiful woman

   香港的夜景真美啊！ [MSC, trad. and simp.]

   Xiānggǎng de yèjǐng zhēn měi a!

   Hong Kong's nightscape is so beautiful!

2. delicious; tasty; flavoursome

   美食  ―  měishí  ―  culinary delicacy

   • 膾炙與羊棗孰美？ [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     脍炙与羊枣孰美？ [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Mencius, c. 4^th century BCE

     Kuàizhì yǔ yángzǎo shú měi?

     Which is best, minced meat and broiled meat, or sheep-dates?

3. good; fine; satisfactory; happy

   美酒  ―  měijiǔ  ―  good wine

   價廉物美／价廉物美  ―  jiàliánwùměi  ―  to be attractive in price and quality

4. to beautify; to prettify

   美容  ―  měiróng  ―  to improve one's appearance

5. to praise; to commend
6. (colloquial) to be pleased with oneself

   他不就是得了個一百分兒嗎？看把他美得！ [MSC, trad.]
   他不就是得了个一百分儿吗？看把他美得！ [MSC, simp.]

   Tā bù jiù shi dé le ge yī bǎi fēnr ma? Kàn bǎ tā měi de!

   Didn't he just get a one hundred percent? Look at how pleased it made him!

7. beautiful things; beauty

   藝術美／艺术美  ―  yìshù měi  ―  artistic beauty

   曲線美／曲线美  ―  qūxiàn měi  ―  (please add an English translation of this usage example)

8. Used in transcription.

   美利堅合眾國／美利坚合众国  ―  Měilìjiān hézhòngguó  ―  United States of America

   達荷美／达荷美  ―  Dáhéměi  ―  Dahomey

   美因茨  ―  Měiyīncí  ―  Mainz

   美索不達米亞／美索不达米亚  ―  Měisuǒbùdámǐyà  ―  Mesopotamia

   葛萊美獎／葛莱美奖  ―  Gěláiměijiǎng  ―  Grammy award

   1. Short for 美洲 (Měizhōu, “America (continent)”).

      南美  ―  Nánměi  ―  South America

   2. Short for 美國／美国 (Měiguó, “United States of America”).

      美籍華人／美籍华人  ―  Měi jí Huárén  ―  Chinese American

      中美關係／中美关系  ―  Zhōng Měi guānxì  ―  Sino-American relations

      美屬薩摩亞／美属萨摩亚  ―  Měishǔ Sàmóyà  ―  American Samoa

9. a surname. Mei

• (United States of America):

• “美”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• “Entry #5385”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2024.

(Third grade kyōiku kanji)

1. beauty; beautiful

• Go-on: み (mi)
• Kan-on: び (bi, Jōyō)
• Kun: うつくしい (utsukushii, 美しい, Jōyō)、ほめる (homeru, 美める)、よい (yoi, 美い)
• Nanori: はる (haru)、よし (yoshi)、よしみ (yoshimi)、り (ri)

• (Tokyo) び (Atamadaka – )^[1]
• IPA^(key):

美(び) • (bi) -na (adnominal 美(び)な (bi na), adverbial 美(び)に (bi ni))

1. beautiful

美(び) • (bi) 

1. beauty

   自(し)然(ぜん)の美(び)

   shizen no bi

   beauty of nature; natural beauty

• IPA^(key):

美(み) • (mi) 

1. beauty; beautiful

美(み) • (-mi) 

1. suffix used by female given names, such as 奈美 (なみ, Nami), 恵美 (えみ, Emi; めぐみ, Megumi), 宏美 (ひろみ, Hiromi)
2. (rare) suffix used by male given names

From Middle Chinese 美 (MC mijX).

• (USA (in compounds)):
  • (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
  • Phonetic hangul:
• (beauty; good; etc.):
  • (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
  • Phonetic hangul:
    • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

美

Wikisource

美 (eumhun 아름다울 미 (areumdaul mi))

1. hanja form^? of 미 (“beauty; beautiful”)
2. hanja form^? of 미 (“the USA, the Americas (in compounds, in news media)”)

美 • (Mi) (hangeul 미)

1. (in headlines) Short for 美(미)國(국) (Miguk, “the USA”).

   美, 제안에 대해 긍정적 입장 보여

   Mi, jeane daehae geungjeongjeok ipjang boyeo

   The United States expressed a positive attitude toward the proposal.

A common convention in news headlines, this is almost always written solely in the Hanja form, even in contemporary Korean text otherwise devoid of any Hanja.

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

美: Hán Việt readings: mỹ^[1][2], mĩ^[3]
美: Nôm readings: mẻ^[2][3][4], mẹ^[1][2], mỹ^[1][2], mẽ^[1][4], mỉa^[1][4], mở^[1], mỉ^[3], mĩ^[4]

1. chữ Hán form of mĩ/mỹ (“beautiful; pretty; good”).