例 (lì): example

例 (lì) is a Chinese character meaning “example.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亻 (semantic) and 列 (phonetic). It ranks #547 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 例 person. Its radical form 亻 (person) appears in many related characters such as 人 (rén, person), 什 (shén, what), 今 (jīn, now).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. example

Etymology & Origin

例

pictophoneticperson

Decomposition: ⿰亻列 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Practice writing 例 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 例

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
例如verblì rúfor example4
例子nounlì zicase4
例外verb/nounlì wàiexception6
案例nounàn lìcase (of fraud, hepatitis, international cooperation etc)6
比例nounbǐ lìproportion5
举例verbjǔ lìto give an example4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
病例nounbìng lì(medical) case
条例nountiáo lìregulations
惯例nounguàn lìconvention
例行verblì xíngroutine (task, procedure etc)
先例nounxiān lìprecedent
例行公事phraselì xíng gōng shìroutine business
史无前例phraseshǐ wú qián lì(idiom) unprecedented in history
破例verbpò lìto make an exception
下不为例phrasexià bù wéi lìnot to be repeated
特例nountè lìspecial case
例假nounlì jià(euphemism) menstrual period
例会nounlì huìregular meeting
判例nounpàn lìjudicial precedent
照例adverbzhào lìas a rule
范例nounfàn lìexample
64
Total compounds
23
As first character
69
As last character
8
As middle character

例 appears in 64 compound words: 23 as the first character, 69 as the last, and 8 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 例 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

如rú
0.723292,866 co-occurrences
诊zhěn
0.69449,040 co-occurrences
病bìng
0.62693,730 co-occurrences
确què
0.59747,908 co-occurrences
惯guàn
0.5356,576 co-occurrences
比bǐ
0.49672,306 co-occurrences
输shū
0.46611,858 co-occurrences
累lèi
0.4407,854 co-occurrences
增zēng
0.42421,930 co-occurrences
染rǎn
0.4199,042 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

例行公事lìxínggōngshìHSK 4+

to do one's routine business; to do as a mere formality; routine business

phrase
史无前例shǐwúqiánlìHSK 4+

unprecedented

phrase
下不为例xiàbùwéilìHSK 4+

not to be repeated; just this once

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

举个例子来说明,假设我们有十个员工需要培训。

Jǔ gè lìzi lái shuōmíng, jiǎshè wǒmen yǒu shí gè yuángōng xūyào péixùn.

To give an example, suppose we have ten employees who need training.

LtnFeb 2026

韩国瑜吁蓝委让军购条例付委 国民党:一定支持但不能浮滥编列

hán guó 瑜 xū lán wěi ràng jūn gòu tiáo lì fù wěi guó mín dǎng : yī dìng zhī chí dàn bù néng fú làn biān liè

Han Yu called on the Blue Committee to hand over the arms purchase regulations to the Kuomintang: We must support but not exaggerate the compilation

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

罕見病例 眼疾男打瘦瘦針 眼嚴重出血

hǎn 見 bìng lì yǎn jí nán dǎ shòu shòu 針 yǎn 嚴 chóng chū xiě

Rare case of a man with eye disease who received a slimming injection and severe bleeding from his eye

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

天價拖吊車引眾怒!張善政指示先訂自治條例:不縱容惡質業者

tiān 價 tuō diào 車 yǐn 眾 nù ! 張 shàn zhèng zhǐ shì xiān 訂 zì zhì 條 lì bù 縱 róng 惡 質 業 zhě

The sky-high price of the tow truck has caused public anger! Zhang Shanzheng instructed to formulate autonomous regulations first: do not condone malicious operators

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

新聞分析/史上首例 總統赴國會報告成局或破局?

xīn 聞 fēn xī shǐ shàng shǒu lì 總 統 fù 國 會 報 gào chéng jú huò pò jú ?

News Analysis: First of Its Kind—Will the President's Congressional Address Succeed or Fail?

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

...球加徵關稅至15% 回應最高院判決 另引例實施150日

. . . qiú jiā 徵 關 稅 zhì huí 應 zuì gāo yuàn pàn 決 lìng yǐn lì 實 shī rì

... Ball tariff increase to 15% in response to the Supreme Court ruling, another 150 days to implement the law.

Tatoeba

可以举几个例子吗?

Kěyǐ jǔ jǐge lìzi ma?

Please give us some examples.

Tatoeba

你能举例说明你的想法吗?

Nǐ néng jǔlì shuōmíng nǐ de xiǎngfǎ ma?

Could you make an example to reify your idea?

Tatoeba

我们按例处罚了他。

Wǒmen àn lì chǔfá le tā.

We punished him according to the rules.

Tatoeba

让我来给你举个例子吧。

Ràng wǒ lái gěi nǐ jǔ ge lìzi ba.

Let me give you an example.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 亻 (person) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced lì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 例 (lì) mean in Chinese?
例 (lì) primarily means "example." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #547 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 例 and 烈?
例 (lì) and 烈 (liè) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 亻 vs 灬 (same 列 component).
How many strokes does 例 have?
例 is written with 8 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 例?
The radical associated with 例 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 例?
例 is composed of: 亻 (semantic), 列 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻列 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 例?
Common words with 例 include: 例如 (lì rú, "for example"); 例子 (lì zi, "case"); 例外 (lì wài, "exception"); 病例 (bìng lì, "(medical) case"); 条例 (tiáo lì, "regulations"). There are over 64 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 例 (lì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lì: 里 (lining), 理 (texture), 力 (power), 利 (sharp), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 例 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 例 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 例 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.