李
| ||||||||
Translingual
Han character
李 (radical 75, 木+3, 7 strokes, cangjie input 木弓木 (DND), four-corner 40407, composition ⿱木子)
References
- KangXi: page 511, character 11
- Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 14459
- Dae Jaweon: page 895, character 9
- Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1162, character 8
- Unihan data for U+674E
Chinese
| simp. and trad. |
李 | |
|---|---|---|
Glyph origin
| Historical forms of the character 李 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Western Zhou | Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) | Liushutong (compiled in Ming) |
| Bronze inscriptions | Small seal script | Transcribed ancient scripts |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
| Characters in the same phonetic series (子) (Zhengzhang, 2003) | |
|---|---|
| Old Chinese | |
| 孜 | *ʔslɯ |
| 仔 | *ʔslɯ, *ʔslɯʔ |
| 孖 | *ʔslɯ, *zlɯs |
| 子 | *ʔslɯʔ |
| 虸 | *ʔslɯʔ |
| 耔 | *ʔslɯʔ |
| 秄 | *ʔslɯʔ |
| 杍 | *ʔslɯʔ |
| 籽 | *ʔslɯʔ |
| 字 | *zlɯs |
| 茡 | *zlɯs |
| 芓 | *zlɯs |
| 牸 | *zlɯs |
| 李 | *rɯʔ |
Oracle bone script: Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *rɯʔ) : phonetic 來 (OC *m·rɯːɡ, “fruit”) + semantic 子. The phonetic part 來 became gradually corrupted to yield 木 (“tree”).
Shuowen erroneously remarks that this is a phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *rɯʔ) : semantic 木 (“tree”) + phonetic 子 (OC *ʔslɯʔ).
Pronunciation
Definitions
李
- plum (tree and fruit)
- (astronomy) Zeta Virginis
- † Alternative form of 理 (lǐ, “judge; justice”).
- A surname, listed fourth in the Baijiaxing
Usage notes
In mainland China or among its expatriates, this name is generally romanized "Li" in accordance with the Hanyu Pinyin system. Although an identical transliteration is used in Wade-Giles, similarity to the English name has made the romanization "Lee" more common in Hong Kong and Taiwan. A notable example to this is Bruce Lee.
Descendants
Compounds
Japanese
Kanji
(“Jinmeiyō” kanji used for names)
Readings
Noun
李 (hiragana すもも, rōmaji sumomo)
Alternative forms
Proper noun
李 (katakana リ, hiragana り, rōmaji Ri)
- Japanese reading of the Chinese or Korean surname.
李 (katakana リー, hiragana りい, rōmaji Rī)
- Japanese reading of the Chinese surname.
李 (katakana イ, hiragana い, rōmaji I)
- Japanese reading of the South Korean surname.
Korean
Hanja
李 • (ri, i)
- (North Korea) 리, (South Korea) 이: the second most common surname in Korea
- (North Korea) 리, (South Korea) 이: plum
Vietnamese
Han character
李 (lí, lý)
- A Vietnamese family name.
- An unisex given name.


