明理 (míng lǐ) — to understand the reasoning, to see reason; reasonable, sensible

Definition

As a verb, 明理 means 'to see reason / understand the principle behind something' (often after explanation). As an adjective-like predicate, it means 'sensible, reasonable' in describing a person's judgment.

verb
to understand the reasoningto see reasonreasonablesensible

Examples

  • 明理，。
    Tā zuò shì hěn míng lǐ, cóng bù chōng dòng.
    He is very sensible in doing things and never acts impulsively.
  • ，明理。
    Jīng guò jiě shì, tā zhōng yú míng lǐ le.
    After the explanation, he finally saw reason.
  • 。
    Tā míng le yí gè hěn zhòng yào de lǐ.
    He understood a very important principle.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

明míngunderstand
理lǐreason

明 means understand and 理 means reason, so the sense is seeing reason or being sensible.

Characters in this word

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

明 combines 日 (sun) and 月 (moon), showing the sun just rising while the moon has not yet set, or two bright objects in the sky, to express brightness.

Open 明 →

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
玉玉yùjade
Sound part声符shēngfú
里
里lǐ理lǐ
Same sound today

理 pairs 玉 (jade) with 里, which shows how to say it; the jade part points to the old sense of polishing jade.

Open 理 →

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