Meaning & readings
lovely, beautiful, graceful, resplendent
On’yomi レイ
Kun’yomi うるわ.しい、うら.らか
Nanori ま、よし、り
Origin
The character 麗 appears to combine two elements to express beauty. The left component 广 suggests a dwelling or structure, while 比 on the right means comparison or standing together. The formation likely represents the idea of things arranged in pleasing order or harmony—like beautiful decorations or elements positioned side by side in a graceful way. Over time, this visual sense of ordered, harmonious arrangement came to symbolize beauty and elegance more broadly. The character's complexity and balance in its strokes themselves also reflect the refined, graceful quality it represents.
Components
- 广
- 比
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 19
- Kangxi radical
- 198
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1758 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+09E97