美艳 (měi yàn) — beautiful and alluring; gorgeous

Definition

美艳 emphasizes striking, sensual attractiveness — often with a glamorous or slightly seductive tone, more vivid than 美丽's neutral 'beautiful'.

adjective

beautiful and alluringgorgeous

，美艳。
Tā chuān zhuó yì shēn hóng sè cháng qún, xiǎn de shí fēn měi yàn.
She was wearing a red dress, looking very gorgeous.
美艳，。
Zhè bù diàn yǐng de nǚ zhǔ jué róng mào měi yàn, lìng rén nán wàng.
The female lead of this movie is beautiful and alluring, unforgettable.
美艳。
Huā yuán lǐ de mǔ dān huā kāi dé měi yàn dòng rén.
The peonies in the garden are blooming in a gorgeous and moving way.

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

美měibeautiful

艳yànalluring

美 (beautiful) and 艳 (alluring) combine to mean gorgeous.

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.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 豔; 艳 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

豐豐fēngabundant, great

Sound part声符shēngfú

盇

盇hé豔yàn

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 豔 pairs 豐 (abundant, great) with a sound component 盇; the simplified 艳 is a later abbreviation.

Appears in