Meaning
tears
Chinese: 眼泪。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “lei” becomes a different word in each tone. 泪 is the 4th tone. Tap any tone to hear a native voice and see its pitch shape.
Stroke Order
Tap Animate to watch the strokes in order, or Practice to trace it yourself.
Common Words
- 眼泪yǎn lèitear; teardrop
- 流泪liú lèito shed tears
- 泪水lèi shuǐteardrop; tears
- 热泪盈眶rè lèi yíng kuàngeyes brimming with tears of excitement (idiom); extremely moved
- 泪人lèi rénperson who is crying their eyes out, whose face is wet with tears
Example Sentence
听到这个故事，她感动得流下了眼泪。Tīng dào zhè ge gù shi, tā gǎn dòng de liú xià le yǎn lèi.Hearing this story, she was moved to tears.
听到Tīng dàoto hear这个zhè ge(pronoun) this故事gù shiold practice，她tāshe感动gǎn dòngto move (sb)得de(verb complement)流liúto flow下xiàbelow了le(completed action)眼泪yǎn lèitear。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
The water radical 氵 plus an eye (目): water coming from the eye — ‘tears’. A clear meaning-by-meaning compound.
A way to remember it
Water from the eye — tears.
Easy to confuse with
- 目‘Eye’: the right-hand part of 泪, on its own.