Meaning of 煤
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- coal
Measure word: 塊|块
How to use 煤
煤 usually appears in compounds like 煤炭 (méitàn, coal), 煤矿 (méikuàng, coal mine) and 煤气 (méiqì, gas for cooking or heating). Example: 这个城市以前烧很多煤。(Zhège chéngshì yǐqián shāo hěn duō méi.) This city used to burn a lot of coal.
煤 (méi) has 火 (fire) on the left and 某 (mǒu) on the right, which also hints at the sound. Picture some black rock that you throw on the fire: that is coal.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 煤 (méi, coal) with 媒 (méi, medium, as in 媒体 méitǐ, media), since both have 某 on the right and the same sound. Remember fire 火 for coal and woman 女 for media.
煤 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.
煤 méi · coal · 13 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 煤.
Questions about 煤
What does 煤 mean?
煤 (méi) means "coal" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 煤?
煤 is made of 1 character: 煤 (13 strokes). That is 13 strokes in total.
Is 煤 an HSK word?
Yes. 煤 is on the HSK 5 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
Does 煤气 mean natural gas?
煤气 (méiqì) originally meant coal gas, but in everyday speech it often refers to any household cooking gas. Natural gas specifically is 天然气 (tiānránqì).
What is the difference between 煤 and 炭?
煤 (méi) is mineral coal dug from the ground. 炭 (tàn) by itself usually means charcoal, as in 木炭 (mùtàn). Together, 煤炭 (méitàn) is the more formal word for coal.