媒 (méi): medium, intermediary, matchmaker

媒 (méi) is a Chinese character meaning “medium.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 女 (semantic) and 某 (phonetic). It ranks #1496 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 媒 woman. Its radical form 女 (woman) appears in many related characters such as 女 (nǚ, woman), 奶 (nǎi, grandmother, milk), 她 (tā, she).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. medium
  2. intermediary
  3. matchmaker

Etymology & Origin

媒

pictophoneticwoman

Decomposition: ⿰女某 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 媒

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
媒体nounméi tǐmedia, esp. news media5
新媒体nounxīn méi tǐnew media (digital media, as contrasted with traditional media)6
多媒体nounduō méi tǐmultimedia6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
传媒nounchuán méithe media
媒介nounméi jièintermediary
媒人nounméi renmatchmaker
做媒verbzuò méito act as go-between (between prospective marriage partners etc)
媒婆nounméi pófemale matchmaker
说媒nounshuō méito act as a matchmaker
媒质nounméi zhìmedium
触媒nounchù méi(Tw) catalyst
中国传媒大学zhōng guó chuán méi dà xuéCommunication University of China (CUC), the highest institute of radio, film and television education in China
维基媒体基金会wéi jī méi tǐ jī jīn huìWikimedia Foundation
媒体自由méi tǐ zì yóufreedom of the media
上海文广新闻传媒集团shàng hǎi wén guǎng xīn wén chuán méi jí tuánShanghai Media Group
平面媒体píng miàn méi tǐprint media
国际媒体guó jì méi tǐthe international media
自媒体nounzì méi tǐself-media (news or other content published on independently-operated social media accounts)
57
Total compounds
23
As first character
37
As last character
40
As middle character

媒 appears in 57 compound words: 23 as the first character, 37 as the last, and 40 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 媒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

体tǐ
0.59299,607 co-occurrences
传chuán
0.51220,110 co-occurrences
介jiè
0.46810,828 co-occurrences
讽fěng
0.45511 co-occurrences
曝pù
0.4351,138 co-occurrences
报bào
0.4308,712 co-occurrences
社shè
0.41215,188 co-occurrences
多duō
0.38919,538 co-occurrences
娱yú
0.387916 co-occurrences
交jiāo
0.38512,108 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

明媒正娶míngméizhèngqǔHSK 6+

formal matchmade marriage

phrase
平面媒体píng miàn méi tǐHSK 5+

print media

phrase
媒妁之言méi shuò zhī yánHSK 5+

(idiom) matchmaker's services (in establishing an arranged marriage)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

媒娲补天的故事在中国流传了几千年。

méi 娲 bǔ tiān de gù shì zài zhōng guó liú chuán le jī qiān nián .

The story of Nuwa patching the sky has been passed down for thousands of years in China.

WorldjournalFeb 2026

日媒民调:选民投票最重视候选人“是否支持高市...

rì méi mín diào : xuǎn mín tóu piào zuì chóng shì hòu xuǎn rén shì fǒu zhī chí gāo shì . . .

Japanese media poll: Voters vote the most important thing about candidates "whether to support Gao City...

StheadlineFeb 2026

伊朗局势|伊媒:一旦开战特朗普家族在中东项目将成攻击目...

yī lǎng jú shì yī méi : yī dàn kāi zhàn tè lǎng pǔ jiā zú zài zhōng dōng xiàng mù jiāng chéng gōng jī mù . . .

Iranian media: Once the war starts, the Trump family's project in the Middle East will become an attack target...

三立新聞網Feb 2026

日媒民调:选民最重视候选人是否支持高市

rì méi mín diào : xuǎn mín zuì chóng shì hòu xuǎn rén shì fǒu zhī chí gāo shì

Japanese media poll: Voters pay the most attention to whether the candidate supports Gao Shi

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...本民众票选“CP值最高商务饭店”是它!日媒:给人一种安心感

. . . běn mín zhòng piào xuǎn C P zhí zuì gāo shāng wù fàn diàn shì tā ! rì méi : gěi rén yī zhǒng ān xīn gǎn

... This people's vote is the "business hotel with the highest CP value"! Japanese media: It gives people a sense of security

百度新闻Feb 2026

外媒:春节全球影响力持续扩大

wài méi : chūn jié quán qiú yǐng xiǎng lì chí xù kuò dà

Foreign media: The global influence of the Spring Festival continues to expand

Tatoeba

媒体近几个月只讨论一件事:经济危机。

Méitǐ jìn jǐ gè yuè zhǐ tǎolùn yī jiàn shì: jīngjìwēijī.

The media has only discussed one thing in the last few months; the economic crisis.

Tatoeba

如需媒体联络,请与当地客服中心或行销团队联系。

Rú xū méitǐ liánluò, qǐng yǔ dāngdì kèfú zhōngxīn huò xíngxiāo tuánduì liánxì.

For media inquiries, please contact your local communications or marketing representative.

Tatoeba

关于这个问题,我觉得垃圾媒体只报道了很片面的信息。

Guānyú zhège wèntí, wǒ juéde lājī méitǐ zhǐ bàodào le hěn piànmiàn de xìnxī.

Concerning this issue, I feel that the trash media only report biased information.

Tatoeba

你们国家媒体中输入的「反觉醒」宣传,是直接来自真正的法西斯的。

Nǐmen guójiā méitǐ zhōng shūrù de 「 fǎn juéxǐng 」 xuānchuán, shì zhíjiē láizì zhēnzhèng de fǎxīsī de.

The "anti-woke" propaganda being imported into your country's media comes straight from actual fascists.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 女 (woman) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced méi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 媒 (méi) mean in Chinese?
媒 (méi) primarily means "medium." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1496 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 媒 and 谋?
媒 (méi) and 谋 (móu) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 女 vs 讠 (same 某 component).
How many strokes does 媒 have?
媒 is written with 12 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 媒?
The radical associated with 媒 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 媒?
媒 is composed of: 女 (semantic), 某 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女某 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 媒?
Common words with 媒 include: 媒体 (méi tǐ, "media, esp. news media"); 传媒 (chuán méi, "the media"); 媒介 (méi jiè, "intermediary"); 新媒体 (xīn méi tǐ, "new media (digital media, as contrasted with traditional media)"); 多媒体 (duō méi tǐ, "multimedia"). There are over 57 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 媒 (méi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation méi: 煤 (coal), 没 ((negative prefix for verbs) have not), 美 ((bound form) the Americas (abbr. for 美洲)), 每 (each), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 媒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 媒 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 媒 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.