砾

礫

lì

noun #86,997

Meanings

大风卷起飞沙走砾，睁不开眼。

Dàfēng juǎn qǐ fēi shā zǒu lì, zhēng bù kāi yǎn.

The wind whipped up sand and stones, making it hard to open one's eyes.

铁轨下面铺着一层沙砾。

Tiěguǐ xiàmian pū zhe yì céng shālì.

There is a layer of gravel under the railway tracks.

usage

砾 is a bound form for small loose stones. You meet it in 沙砾 (sand and gravel) and 瓦砾 (rubble, broken tiles after destruction).

radical

石 shí

stone; rock

The stone radical, picturing a rock at a cliff foot. It marks 砾 firmly as a kind of stone, here the small, loose, scattered kind.

phonetic

乐 lè

happy; music

Supplies the sound. The traditional form used 樂 (lè/yuè) as phonetic; in the simplified 砾 the contracted 乐 still carries the lì reading.

砾 lì