Meaning of 肌肉
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- muscle
- flesh
How to use 肌肉
肌肉 is the everyday and scientific word for muscle, used in fitness, health, and anatomy. It often pairs with words like 练 (liàn, to train) or 酸 (suān, sore). Example: 跑完步我的腿部肌肉很酸。(Pǎo wán bù wǒ de tuǐbù jīròu hěn suān.) After running, my leg muscles are very sore.
Both characters are about the body. 肌 (jī) has the flesh radical 月 on the left, and 肉 (ròu) is the word for meat itself, so 肌肉 is the flesh that moves your body: muscle.
Common mistake: 肌肉 (jīròu) and 鸡肉 (jīròu, chicken meat) sound exactly the same, so in speech context matters, and in writing do not swap 肌 for 鸡. Also, 肉 alone means meat you eat, so do not use 肉 by itself when you mean a person's muscles.
肌肉 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.
肌 jī · flesh · 6 strokes
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肉 ròu · meat · 6 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 肌肉.
| 烤肉 | kǎoròu | to barbecue meat; to roast meat; barbecued meat; roast meat |
| 肌肤 | jīfū | skin; flesh |
| 牛肉 | niúròu | beef |
| 鸡肉 | jīròu | chicken meat |
| 肉体 | ròutǐ | physical body |
| 猪肉 | zhūròu | pork |
| 行尸走肉 | xíngshīzǒuròu | walking corpse (idiom); zombie |
| 羊肉 | yángròu | mutton; goat meat |
| 肉桂 | ròuguì | Chinese cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia) |
| 肉类 | ròulèi | meat |
| 骨肉 | gǔròu | blood relation; kin |
| 肉眼 | ròuyǎn | naked eye; layman's eyes |
Questions about 肌肉
What does 肌肉 mean?
肌肉 (jīròu) means "muscle; flesh" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 肌肉?
肌肉 is made of 2 characters: 肌 (6 strokes), 肉 (6 strokes). That is 12 strokes in total.
Is 肌肉 an HSK word?
Yes. 肌肉 is on the HSK 5 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How do you say someone is muscular in Chinese?
A common way is 肌肉发达 (jīròu fādá), meaning well-developed muscles. Casually people also say 有肌肉 (yǒu jīròu) or call a muscular guy 肌肉男 (jīròu nán).
What is the difference between 肌肉 and 肌肤?
肌肉 (jīròu) means muscle, the tissue under the skin. 肌肤 (jīfū) means skin, and it is a more literary word often used in skincare and beauty contexts.