Chinese word

枚

Pronunciation

Pinyinméi

Meaning

  • measure wordpiece

Example

比赛后他得到了一枚奖牌。bǐ sài hòu tā dé dào le yì méi jiǎng pái

After the competition, he received a medal.

Illustration for 枚 (piece)

More examples

集邮爱好者收藏了一枚珍稀邮票。jí yóu ài hào zhě shōu cáng le yì méi zhēn xī yóu piào

A stamp collector collected a rare postage stamp.

Core concept

A fingertip-sized flat item separated from a group and counted one by one.

Common phrases

  • 一枚奖牌yì méi jiǎng pái

    a medal

  • 一枚邮票yì méi yóu piào

    a postage stamp

  • 一枚硬币yì méi yìng bì

    a coin

Similar words

张zhāng: A measure word for a thin, flat item, including paper, photographs, and tickets.
个gè: A widely used measure word for counting people or objects.
块kuài: A measure word for a chunk or separated piece of something, such as cake or stone.

Definition in Chinese

用来表示单个薄平物件的数量，常与硬币、奖章、邮票等搭配。yòng lái biǎo shì dān gè báo píng wù jiàn de shù liàng cháng yǔ yìng bì jiǎng zhāng yóu piào děng dā pèi

Word origin

The older noun sense of 枚 (méi, "piece") referred to a branch or stem, while the later measure-word sense applied the idea of one separate object to small, flat things.

Usage tips

  • Shape alone does not determine the classifier in everyday Chinese, so coins, medals, and stamps are useful fixed pairings to learn instead of applying this word to every flat object.

Related words

  • 枚举méi jǔenumerateverb
  • 不胜枚举bú shèng méi jǔtoo numerous to enumerateidiom

Word lists with this word