尼

ní
noun #1,067

Meanings

  1. 1 Buddhist nun
  2. 2 ni

Examples

HSK 7-9
她出家当了尼姑。
Tā chūjiā dāng le nígū.
She became a Buddhist nun.
HSK 7-9
Níbó'ěr shì yígè měilì de guójiā.
Nepal is a beautiful country.

Tips

usage
尼 on its own usually appears as part of compound words: 尼姑 (Buddhist nun), 尼龙 (nylon), or in transliterations like 尼泊尔 (Nepal), 悉尼 (Sydney).

Components

radical
尸 shī
corpse; reclining body
Outer-top body radical 尸 - historically a person reclining or seated, not literally a corpse. Indexes 尼 in the 尸-family alongside 屋, 居, 屎, 局 - body-and-dwelling characters. Originally 尼 depicted two people leaning back-to-back, so 尸 supplies the seated-figure half of that picture.
phonetic
匕 bǐ
spoon; bent person
Lower-right 匕 - a bent or kneeling figure, the second person in the original 'two people back-to-back' image. Also supplies a phonetic anchor: 匕 bǐ → ní reflects an Old Chinese consonant shift; the intimate 'next-to' meaning of 尼 (in 尼姑, 尼龙) survives from the closeness of the two figures.

Stroke Order

尼 ní