grain; granule; pellet; particle

classifier for small round objects (peas, bullets, peanuts, pills, grains etc); (Tw) classifier for larger round objects (watermelon etc)

rice (米) + standing (立) = a single grain or particle

米 anchors the meaning in small, discrete kernels of rice. 立 mainly contributes the lì sound; the grain radical does the semantic work.

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To standPhonetic
RiceSemantic

他每天早上吃两药。

tā měi tiān zǎo shang chī liǎng lì yào。

He takes two pills every morning.

桌上有几花生,你可以吃。

zhuō shang yǒu jǐ lì huā shēng,nǐ kě yǐ chī。

There are a few peanuts on the table; you can eat them.

Words with 粒

质粒

zhì lì

plasmid

阿尔法粒子

ā ěr fǎ lì zǐ

alpha particle (helium nucleus)

霰粒肿

xiàn lì zhǒng

(medicine) chalazion

颗粒归仓

kē lì guī cāng

to gather all the harvested grain into the granary; to harvest every single grain

颗粒无收

kē lì wú shōu

not a single grain was reaped (as in a bad harvest year)

颗粒物

kē lì wù

particulate matter (PM)

饭粒

fàn lì

grain of cooked rice

高能粒子

gāo néng lì zǐ

high energy particle

麦粒

mài lì

grain of wheat

麦粒肿

mài lì zhǒng

(medicine) stye; hordeolum

一粒老鼠屎坏了一锅粥

yī lì lǎo shǔ shǐ huài le yī guō zhōu

lit. one pellet of rat feces spoiled the whole pot of congee (idiom)

中心粒

zhōng xīn lì

centriole

More characters with 米