(): grain, granule, pellet, particle, classifier for small round objects (peas, bullets, peanuts, pills, grains etc), (Tw) classifier for larger round objects (watermelon etc)

() is a Chinese character meaning “grain.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1698 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, grain. Its radical form (rice) appears in many related characters such as (, uncooked rice), (lèi, kind), (jīng, essence).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. grain
  2. granule
  3. pellet
  4. particle
  5. classifier for small round objects (peas, bullets, peanuts, pills, grains etc)
  6. (Tw) classifier for larger round objects (watermelon etc)

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticgrain

Decomposition: ⿰米立 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
lì zǐ(elementary) particle
wēi lìspeck
kē lìkernel
xiān lìSiem Reap, Cambodia
线xiàn lì tǐmitochondrion
mǐ lìgrain of rice
zǐ lìseed
lì xì bāogranulocyte
yù mǐ lìcorn kernel
lì zǐ shùbeam of elementary particles
mài lìgrain of wheat
gǔ lìgrain (of cereal)
mài lì zhǒng(medicine) stye
lì zǐ wù lǐ xuéparticle physics
gāo néng lì zǐhigh energy particle
58
Total compounds
16
As first character
36
As last character
48
As middle character

appears in 58 compound words: 16 as the first character, 36 as the last, and 48 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.63822,962 co-occurrences
0.53798,700 co-occurrences
0.4766,882 co-occurrences
wēi
0.4669,246 co-occurrences
bāo
0.4495,724 co-occurrences
shì
0.447990 co-occurrences
0.436474 co-occurrences
jīng
0.4303,642 co-occurrences
chén
0.407630 co-occurrences
0.4052,400 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

jīběn lìzǐHSK 6+

elementary particle

noun
kēlìwúshōuHSK 6+

to reap nothing

phrase
xìkēlìwùHSK 6+

particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5)

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le lì zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "粒" in the dictionary.

SmzdmMar 2026

腾讯新游《的小人国》开测,全网晒崽引爆偶遇社交热...

téng xùn xīn yóu lì lì de xiǎo rén guó kāi cè , quán wǎng shài 崽 yǐn bào ǒu yù shè jiāo rè . . .

Tencent's new game *Little People's World* has launched its beta test, with players sharing their characters across the web and sparking a social media craze around chance encounters...

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Mar 2026

大溪厝水环境教育园区 手作工坊再造废弃

dà xī 厝 shuǐ huán jìng jiào yù yuán qū shǒu zuò gōng fāng zài zào fèi qì lì liào

Daxicuo Water Environment Education Park: Handicraft Workshop Repurposes Waste Granules

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Mar 2026

我科学家发明线体移植新技术

wǒ kē xué jiā fā míng xiàn lì tǐ yí zhí xīn jì shù

Chinese Scientists Develop New Mitochondrial Transplantation Technique

BastillepostMar 2026

日本311地震15周年!线体DNA技术助6岁失踪女童14年后回家

rì běn 3 1 1 dì zhèn 1 5 zhōu nián ! lì xiàn tǐ D N A jì shù zhù 6 suì shī zōng nǚ tóng 1 4 nián hòu huí jiā

15th Anniversary of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake! Mitochondrial DNA Technology Helps 6-Year-Old Missing Girl Return Home 14 Years Later

Hk01.comFeb 2026

$38外卖椰汁芋头西米露糖水!仅5芋头+极少西米 网民嘲赈灾粥

3 8 wài mài yē zhī 芋 tóu xī mǐ lù táng shuǐ ! jǐn 5 lì 芋 tóu jí shǎo xī mǐ wǎng mín cháo 赈 zāi zhōu

$38 takeaway coconut taro sago sugar water! Only 5 grains of taro + very little sago Netizens ridiculed the disaster relief porridge

Tatoeba

空气中的微可以引发癌症。

Kōngqì zhōng de wēilì kěyǐ yǐnfā áizhèng.

Tiny particles in the air can cause cancer.

Tatoeba

你衬衫的第二衣钮好像快要掉下来了。

Nǐ chènshān de dì'èr lì yī niǔ hǎoxiàng kuàiyào diàoxià lái le.

The second button of your shirt is coming off.

Tatoeba

我只剩下一糖了。

Wǒ zhǐ shèng xià yī lì táng le.

I only have one sweet left.

Tatoeba

我的儿子从盒子里拿了一糖。

Wǒ de érzi cóng hézi lǐ ná le yī lì táng.

My son took a candy from the box.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 粒 (lì) mean in Chinese?
粒 (lì) primarily means "grain." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1698 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 粒 and 大?
粒 (lì) and 大 (dà) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 粒 (small) vs 大 (big).
How many strokes does 粒 have?
粒 is written with 11 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 粒?
The radical associated with 粒 is 米 (rice). This radical appears in many characters related to rice.
What are the components of 粒?
粒 is composed of: 米 (semantic), 立 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰米立 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 粒?
Common words with 粒 include: 粒子 (lì zǐ, "(elementary) particle"); 微粒 (wēi lì, "speck"); 颗粒 (kē lì, "kernel"); 暹粒 (xiān lì, "Siem Reap, Cambodia"); 线粒体 (xiàn lì tǐ, "mitochondrion"). There are over 58 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 粒 (lì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lì: 礼 (abbr. for 禮記|礼记, Classic of Rites), 李 (plum, surname Li), 里 (lining), 理 (texture), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 粒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 粒 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.