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美女 (měi nǚ) — beautiful woman, beauty

Definition

美女 is an everyday, casual term for an attractive woman, often used as a friendly form of address toward young women (like 'beauty' or 'miss'). It is more colloquial than 美丽 (the adjective 'beautiful').

noun
beautiful womanbeauty
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 美女。
    Tā shì yí gè zhēn zhèng de měi nǚ.
    She is a true beauty.
  • 美女。
    Wǒ zài jiē shàng kàn dào le hěn duō měi nǚ.
    I saw many beautiful women on the street.
  • 美女。
    Zhè wèi měi nǚ shì wǒ de dà xué tóng xué.
    This beautiful woman is my college classmate.

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měibeautiful
女nǚwoman

“美” beautiful plus “女” woman gives a beautiful woman.

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 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

女 shows a woman with folded arms, kneeling or standing. In the modern form the figure faces right, and the small enclosed part is what is left of one arm.

Open 女 →
Appears in
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