Meaning of 姐妹
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- sisters
- siblings
- sister (school, city etc)
How to use 姐妹
姐妹 (jiěmèi) means sisters as a group, and it also names paired institutions, as in 姐妹城市 (jiěmèi chéngshì, sister cities) or 姐妹学校 (sister schools). Friends also use it for close female friends. Example: 她们是好姐妹。(Tāmen shì hǎo jiěmèi.) They are close like sisters.
Both characters carry the woman radical 女 (nǚ) on the left, so you know they are about women. Put 姐 (jiě, older sister) first and 妹 (mèi, younger sister) second, just like the older one walks ahead.
Common mistake: Learners often mix up 妹 (mèi) with 姝 or misread the right side as 未 versus 末. 妹 uses 未 (wèi), whose top stroke is longer than the bottom one is not the case, so the lower horizontal is the longer one. Also keep the tones clear: jiě is third tone and mèi is fourth.
姐妹 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
姐 jiě · older sister · 8 strokes
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妹 mèi · younger sister · 8 strokes
- 1
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Related words
Words that share a character with 姐妹.
| 小姐 | xiǎojiě | young lady; miss |
| 姐姐 | jiějie | older sister |
| 妹妹 | mèimei | younger sister; young woman |
| 大姐 | dàjiě | big sister; elder sister |
| 妹子 | mèizi | (dialect) younger sister; girl |
| 表妹 | biǎomèi | younger female cousin through a female relative |
| 兄弟姐妹 | xiōngdìjiěmèi | brothers and sisters; siblings |
| 小妹妹 | xiǎomèimei | little sister; little girl |
| 辣妹 | làmèi | hot chick; sexy girl |
| 姊妹 | zǐmèi | (older and younger) sisters; sister (school, city etc) |
| 小妹 | xiǎomèi | little sister; girl |
| 姐夫 | jiěfu | (coll.) older sister's husband |
Questions about 姐妹
What does 姐妹 mean?
姐妹 (jiěmèi) means "sisters; siblings" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 姐妹?
姐妹 is made of 2 characters: 姐 (8 strokes), 妹 (8 strokes). That is 16 strokes in total.
Is 姐妹 an HSK word?
Yes. 姐妹 is on the HSK 4 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How do I ask how many sisters someone has?
Say 你有几个姐妹？(Nǐ yǒu jǐ gè jiěmèi?) To ask about all siblings, use 兄弟姐妹 (xiōngdì jiěmèi), as in 你有兄弟姐妹吗？(Do you have any siblings?)
Can 姐妹 include brothers?
Normally no. 姐妹 refers to sisters, though in some regions it can loosely mean siblings. For brothers and sisters together, the standard phrase is 兄弟姐妹 (xiōngdì jiěmèi).