美 (měi): beautiful; pretty

Meanings

1 beautiful; pretty
2 America
3 good; satisfying

Characters

美

měi

beautiful; good; fine

Composed of 羊 (sheep) + 大 (big) - a big, fat sheep was considered beautiful in ancient times.

Examples

HSK 2

她长得很美。

Tā zhǎng de hěn měi.

She is very beautiful.

HSK 4

这里的风景真美！

Zhèlǐ de fēngjǐng zhēn měi!

The scenery here is truly beautiful!

HSK 7-9

心里美滋滋的。

Xīnli měizīzī de.

Feeling satisfied and happy inside.

Tips

usage

美 as abbreviation for America: 美国 (USA), 美元 (US dollar), 中美关系 (China-US relations).

culture

The character 美 is composed of 羊 (sheep) + 大 (big) - in ancient China, a big, fat sheep was considered a beautiful, desirable thing.

Components

radical

羊 yáng

sheep; goat (radical)

Top sheep radical (Kangxi #123) - here in its 6-stroke headless-tail form (standalone 羊's bottom vertical is absorbed into 美's body below). Pictograph of a horned sheep viewed head-on: the two top dots are horns, the horizontals are body. Carries the meaning directly - fat sheep = beautiful in ancient agrarian culture. Family: 群, 鲜, 羞, 善.

semantic

大 dà

big (semantic)

Bottom 大 - a person with arms outstretched, here pictured wearing the sheep above as a headdress. The compound ideograph reads: a person crowned with sheep-horns = decorated, ornamented, beautiful. From this dance/ritual scene came the modern 'beautiful, pretty, good' senses, plus the rebus use 美国 'America' (a sound-and-flavour borrow).