(méi): coal

(méi) is a Chinese character meaning “coal.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1724 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, fire. Its radical form (fire) appears in many related characters such as (huǒ, fire), (dēng, lamp, light), (yān, smoke).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. coal

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿰火某 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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
méi qìcoal gas
méi kuàngcoal mine
méi yóukerosene
méi tàncoal
méi huīsoot
méi zhāslack
méi qiúcharcoal briquette
wú yān méianthracite
cǎi méicoal mining
méi jiāo yóucoal tar
rán méicoal fuel
méi zhuānbriquette
ní méipeat
fēng wō méihexagonal household coal briquette
cǎi méi gōng zuò miàn(mining) coalface
41
Total compounds
49
As first character
39
As last character
12
As middle character

appears in 41 compound words: 49 as the first character, 39 as the last, and 12 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.

tàn
0.79637,086 co-occurrences
kuàng
0.70432,764 co-occurrences
rán
0.56913,695 co-occurrences
zhù
0.467558 co-occurrences
yóu
0.4638,241 co-occurrences
jiāo
0.4543,009 co-occurrences
guō
0.446894 co-occurrences
zhā
0.446792 co-occurrences
0.4411,038 co-occurrences
yān
0.4331,758 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

随着清洁能源的推广,很多地区已经停止使用炭发电。

Suízhe qīngjié néngyuán de tuīguǎng, hěn duō dìqū yǐjīng tíngzhǐ shǐyòng méitàn fādiàn.

With the promotion of clean energy, many regions have stopped using coal for power generation.

工商時報Mar 2026

日本钢铁厂原料采购价续涨;焦涨2成、近2年高

rì běn gāng tiě hǎn yuán liào cǎi gòu jià xù zhǎng ; jiāo méi zhǎng 2 chéng , jìn 2 nián gāo

Raw material procurement prices at Japanese steel mills continue to rise; coking coal prices up 20%, hitting a two-year high

Investing 香港Mar 2026

国海证券:价长期内仍然有上涨的诉求 维持炭开采行...

guó hǎi zhèng quàn : méi jià cháng qī nèi réng rán yǒu shàng zhǎng de sù qiú wéi chí méi tàn kāi cǎi háng . . .

Guohai Securities: Coal prices still have room to rise in the long term; maintaining a buy rating on coal mining...

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

...开战冲击台供电 龚明鑫:若拖到4月 全面炭发电是最后手段

. . . kāi zhàn chōng jī tái gōng diàn 龚 míng 鑫 : ruò tuō dào 4 yuè quán miàn méi tàn fā diàn shì zuì hòu shǒu duàn

... Gong Mingxin: If it drags on until April, full-scale coal power generation is the last resort

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

《大行》招銀國際升兗澳大利亞(03668.HK)目標價至38...

dà háng zhāo 銀 國 際 shēng 兗 méi ào dà lì 亞 . mù 標 價 zhì . . .

CMB International raised the target price of Yancoal Australia (03668.HK) to 38...

NewsFeb 2026

...etallurgical业绩即将公布,焦市场考验矿业公司

. . . yè jì jí jiāng gōng bù , jiāo méi shì chǎng kǎo yàn kuàng yè gōng sī

... Etalurgical results are about to be announced, and the coking coal market tests mining companies

Tatoeba

是一种化石燃料。

Hèméi shì yīzhǒng huàshíránliào.

Lignite is a fossil fuel.

Tatoeba

我该在哪儿付气费?

Wǒ gāi zài nǎr fù méiqì fèi?

Where do I pay for the gas?

Tatoeba

并不一定都是黑的。

Méi bìngbù yīdìng dōu shì hēi de.

Coal is not always black.

Tatoeba

在下雪很多的地方,油是不可或缺的东西。

Zài xiàxuě hěn duō de dìfang, méiyóu shì bùkěhuòquē de dōngxi.

In places where it snows a lot, kerosene is an indispensable item.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced méi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 煤 (méi) mean in Chinese?
煤 (méi) primarily means "coal." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1724 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 煤 and 谋?
煤 (méi) and 谋 (móu) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 火 vs 讠 (same 某 component).
How many strokes does 煤 have?
煤 is written with 13 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 煤?
The radical associated with 煤 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 煤?
煤 is composed of: 火 (semantic), 某 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰火某 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 煤?
Common words with 煤 include: 煤气 (méi qì, "coal gas"); 煤矿 (méi kuàng, "coal mine"); 煤油 (méi yóu, "kerosene"); 煤炭 (méi tàn, "coal"); 煤灰 (méi huī, "soot"). There are over 41 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 煤 (méi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation méi: 媒 (medium), 没 ((negative prefix for verbs) have not), 枚 (classifier for small objects: coins, badges, rings, carved seals, chess pieces, eggs, fingerprints etc (more formal than 個|个)), 玫 ((fine jade)), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 煤 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 煤 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.