fēi / fěi
noun #3,988

Meanings

  1. 1 abbreviation for the Philippines
  2. 2 luxuriant; fragrant (of vegetation)
  3. 3 phenanthrene (chemistry)

Examples

Fēilǜbīn shì Dōngnányà de yī gè guójiā.
The Philippines is a country in Southeast Asia.
Tā jiào Suǒfēiyà.
Her name is Sophia.

Tips

usage
is very common in transliterations of foreign names: 菲律宾 (Philippines), 索菲亚 (Sophia), 菲尔 (Phil). The 'luxuriant / fragrant' sense is literary and rare. A separate reading fěi means 'meager / humble', a different word.

Components

radical
cǎo
grass; plants (top form of 艸)
Top grass radical, the indexing component. originally named a fragrant herb, hence the plant marker. Today the plant sense has faded and the character mostly serves as a transliteration syllable in foreign names like 菲律宾 and 索菲亚.
phonetic
fēi
not; wrong (phonetic)
Bottom supplies the sound directly with no drift. The same phonetic drives (in 咖啡), , and . It is purely phonetic here.

Stroke Order

fēi