喱 (lí): grain (an old unit of weight, a…

Meanings

1 grain (an old unit of weight, about 0.065 grams)
2 syllable used to transliterate foreign words

Characters

喱

lí

grain (weight); transliteration syllable

Examples

咖喱鸡是一道很受欢迎的菜。

Gālí jī shì yí dào hěn shòu huānyíng de cài.

Curry chicken is a very popular dish.

这家甜品店的椰汁啫喱很好吃。

Zhè jiā tiánpǐndiàn de yēzhī zhělí hěn hǎochī.

This dessert shop's coconut jelly is delicious.

一喱是很小的旧重量单位。

Yì lí shì hěn xiǎo de jiù zhòngliàng dānwèi.

A grain is a tiny old unit of weight.

Tips

usage

Mainly a sound-borrowing syllable. Learners meet it in 咖喱 ('curry') and the Cantonese-origin 啫喱 ('jelly', from English). It also names the old weight unit 'grain'.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

The mouth radical on the left is the standard marker for transliteration characters, signalling that the glyph is borrowed for its sound rather than its meaning.

phonetic

厘 lí

a hundredth; a tiny unit

Supplies the sound on the right: 厘 lí gives the reading directly. Its own sense of a very small measure also suits the tiny weight unit 'grain'.