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美味 (měi wèi) — delicious food; delicacy

Definition

As a noun, 美味 means 'delicious food / delicacy' — the dish itself rather than how it tastes. Compare 美食 (fine cuisine as a category) and 好吃 (an adjective, 'tastes good').

noun
delicious fooddelicacy

Examples

  • 美味。
    Wǒ qǐng péng you lái jiā lǐ chī měi wèi.
    I invited friends to come to my home to eat delicious food.
  • 美味。
    Zhè jiā diàn de měi wèi fēi cháng xīn xiān.
    The delicious food at this restaurant is very fresh.
  • 美味。
    Zhè lǐ de měi wèi ràng wǒ chī le hái xiǎng chī.
    The delicious food here makes me want to eat more and more.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

美měidelicious
味wèitaste

美 describes 味, taste, as delicious.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

美 shows 大, a person, wearing 羊, a headdress of feathers or ram's horn.

Open 美 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
口口kǒumouth
Sound part声符shēngfú
未
未wèi味wèi
Same sound today

味 combines 口 (mouth) with 未, which gives the sound wèi; the mouth part relates to taste.

Open 味 →
Appears in
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