Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Li

(lē)

Noun.

A Chinese measure of distance, being a little more than one third of a mile.

A Chinese copper coin; a cash. See

Cash

Definition 2024

Li

See also: Appendix:Variations of "li"

Translingual

Symbol

(chemistry) The symbol for lithium.

English

Alternative forms

(Chinese name): Lee, Lǐ
(Korean name): Lee, Rhee, Ri, I, Yi, Rey, Rhie

Proper noun

A surname of Chinese origin, a transcription of 李 (Lǐ)
A surname of Chinese origin, a transcription of other less common names such as 黎 (Lí) and 理 (Lǐ)
A surname of Korean origin, a variant of Lee and Rhee (Hanja: 李; Hangul: 이 & 리)
A county in Gansu province in China

Translations

Li: the Chinese surname

Chinese:

Cantonese: 李 ‎(lei⁵), 黎 ‎(lai⁴), 理 ‎(lei⁵)

Mandarin: 李 (zh) ‎(Lǐ), 黎 (zh) ‎(Lí), 理 (zh) ‎(Lǐ)
Japanese: 李 (ja) ‎(り, Ri)

Korean: (South Korea) 이 (ko) ‎(I) (capital "i") (李 (ko)), (North Korea, in South Korea after a vowel) 리 (ko) ‎(Ri) (李 (ko))
Russian: Ли (ru) ‎(Li)
Vietnamese: Lý (李)

Anagrams

Vietnamese

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [l̪i˧˧]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [lɪj˧˧]
(Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [l̻ʲɪj˧˥]
Homophone: li

Proper noun

A female given name

li

See also: Appendix:Variations of "li"

English

Noun

li ‎(plural lis or li)

The Chinese mile, a traditional unit of distance equal to 1500 chis or 150 zhangs, now standardized as a half-kilometer (500 meters).

Synonyms

Chinese mile

Translations

Chinese unit of distance

Chinese: 里, 市里
Dutch: li (nl)

French: li (fr) m

Etymology 2

From Mandarin 市厘 ‎(lí).

Noun

li ‎(plural li)

A traditional Chinese unit of weight, equal to one-thousandth of a liang, or fifty milligrams.

Etymology 3

From Mandarin 禮 ‎(lǐ).

Noun

li ‎(plural li)

(Chinese philosophy) A meaningful ceremony or ritual; etiquette, behaviour.

Etymology 4

From Mandarin 鬲 ‎(lì).

Noun

li ‎(plural li)

An ancient Chinese cauldron having three hollow legs.

Anagrams

Albanian

Etymology 1

Noun

li f

smallpox

Etymology 2

From Latin līnum.

Noun

li m

flax

Aromanian

Etymology

From Latin illis, dative common plural of ille. Compare Romanian le.

Pronoun

li f ‎(short/unstressed accusative form of eali)

(direct object) them (all-female group)

Related terms

lã (feminine/masculine plural dative- short/unstressed form)
u (feminine singular accusative- short/unstressed form)
(a) lor (feminine/masculine plural dative- long/stressed form)

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin illī, dative common singular of ille.

Pronoun

li ‎(enclitic and proclitic)

him, her, it (indirect object)

Declension

Catalan personal pronouns and clitics

	strong/subject	weak (direct object)		weak (indirect object)		possessive
singular		proclitic	enclitic	proclitic	enclitic
1st person	jo, mi³	em, m’	-me, ’m	em, m’	-me, ’m	meu
1st person majestic¹	nós	ens	-nos, ’ns	ens	-nos, ’ns	nostre
2nd person	tu	et, t’	-te, ’t	et, t’	-te, ’t	teu
2nd person formal¹	vós	us	-vos, -us	us	-vos, -us	vostre
2nd person very formal²	vostè	el, l’	-lo, ’l	li	-li	seu
3rd person masculine	ell	el, l’	-lo, ’l	li	-li	seu
3rd person feminine	ella	la, l’⁴	-la	li	-li	seu
3rd person neuter		ho	-ho	li	-li	seu
3rd person reflexive	si	es, s’	-se, ’s	es, s’	-se, ’s	seu
plural
1st person	nosaltres	ens	-nos, ’ns	ens	-nos, ’ns	nostre
2nd person	vosaltres	us	-vos, -us	us	-vos, -us	vostre
2nd person formal²	vostès	els	-los, ’ls	els	-los, ’ls	seu
3rd person masculine	ells	els	-los, ’ls	els	-los, ’ls	seu
3rd person feminine	elles	les	-les	els	-los, ’ls	seu
3rd person reflexive	si	es, s’	-se, ’s	es, s’	-se, ’s	seu
adverbial
ablative/genitive		en, n’	-ne, ’n
locative		hi	-hi
¹⁾ Behaves grammatically as plural. ²⁾ Behaves grammatically as third person.			³⁾ Only as object of a preposition. ⁴⁾ Not before unstressed (h)i-, (h)u-.

Dutch

Pronunciation

Noun

li m ‎(uncountable)

li (Chinese unit of distance).

Esperanto

Etymology

From Italian lui, French lui, or Spanish le, plus the i of personal pronouns.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /li/

Pronoun

li ‎(accusative lin, possessive lia)

(personal pronoun) he

Related terms

ili ‎(“they”)

Derived terms

ŝli

French

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /li/

Noun

li m ‎(plural lis)

li (Chinese unit of distance).

Anagrams

Haitian Creole

Etymology 1

From French lui.

Pronoun

Etymology 2

From French lire.

Verb

To read

Ido

Etymology

lu ‎(“he, him, she, her, it, that”) +‎ -i ‎(“-s; plural”)

Pronoun

li pl

they, them

Related terms

ili ‎(“they, them”) (masculine)
eli ‎(“they, them”) (feminine)
oli ‎(“they, them”) (neuter)

Interlingue

Article

Istriot

Article

masculine plural definite article
- 1877, Antonio Ive, Canti popolari istriani: raccolti a Rovigno, volume 5, Ermanno Loescher, page 40:
  Ti me pari oûna dea infra li dai,‎
  You seem to me a goddess among the gods,

Italian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /li/, [l̺i]
Homophone: lì

Etymology 1

From Latin illī, nominative plural of ille.

Article

li ‎(singular lo)

(archaic) Form of i before a vowel, impure s, gn, pn, ps, x, and z, and also with the plural noun dei; the

Pronoun

Archaic form of gli.

Etymology 2

Pronoun

them

Etymology 3

Misspelling of lì.

Related terms

Anagrams

Kurdish

Preposition

in
li Kurdistanê (in Kurdistan)
li ser: on:
li ser maseyê (on the table)

Livonian

Verb

2nd person singular imperative form of lǟdõ

Lojban

Cmavo

indicates that the next word is a number or mathematical expression used as a sumti

Usage notes

A sumti phrase begun with li ends with the elidable terminator lo'o unless no ambiguity results (in which case the terminator is elided).
The numerals following the li end with the elidable terminator boi (unless no ambiguity results (in which case the terminator is elided)).
In some instances, lo'o and boi may be interchangeable, yielding parsings with essentially the same structure.

Related terms

Maltese

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /li/

Pronoun

(relative) who; that
ir-raġel li seraq il-karozza
the man who stole the car

Mandarin

Romanization

li (Zhuyin ㄌㄧ˙)

Pinyin transcription of 哩
Pinyin transcription of 裏
Pinyin transcription of 裡
Pinyin transcription of 里

Nonstandard spelling of lī.
Nonstandard spelling of lí.
Nonstandard spelling of lǐ.
Nonstandard spelling of lì.

Usage notes

English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Mauritian Creole

Etymology

From French le, lui

Pronoun

he, she, it (third-person singular personal pronoun)

	singular	plural
1st person	mo mwa (objective)	nou
2nd person	to (informal), ou (formal) twa (objective)	zot
3rd person	li	zot, bann-la

Michif

Etymology

From French le.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [lɪ]

Article

li m ‎(feminine la, masculine and feminine plural lii)

Miskito

Noun

water

References

Eduard Conzemius, Ethnographical Survey of the Miskito and Sumu Indians (1932)

Neapolitan

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /i/

Pronoun

Alternative form of 'i

Niuatoputapu

Article

Norman

Etymology

From Old French li, from Vulgar Latin *illui, a Vulgar Latin dative of Classical Latin ille.

Pronoun

(Guernsey) him

Norwegian

Etymology

From Old Norse hlíð

Noun

A sloping mountainside or hillside covered with grass or forest.

Inflection

Inflection of li

	indefinite singular	definite singular	indefinite plural	definite plural
Bokmål m	li	lien	lier	liene
Bokmål f	li	lia	lier	liene
Nynorsk f	li	lia	lier	liene

References

“li” in The Bokmål Dictionary / The Nynorsk Dictionary.
“li” in The Ordnett Dictionary

Novial

Article

Old French

Etymology 1

From Latin ille ‎(“that”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /li/

Article

the (masculine nominative singular and plural definite article)
- circa 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:
  Li rois respont: "N'est pas mançonge"
  The king replied "this is no lie"

Inflection

Old French definite articles

Declension of the definite article le
	singular		plural
	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine
nominative	li	la, le ¹	li	les
oblique	le ¹	la ¹	les	les
¹ These singular forms elide to l' before a vowel or non-aspirate h.

Etymology 2

Pronoun

third-person singular indirect object pronoun; to him, to her, to it
- circa 1180, Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot ou le Chevalier de la charrette:
  Si li ancomancent a dire
  He started to tell him

Descendants

French: lui

Old Provençal

Etymology

From Latin ille ‎(“that”).

Article

the (masculine nominative singular and plural definite article)

Polish

Etymology 1

Adverb

li ‎(not comparable)

(obsolete) only

Etymology 2

From Mandarin

Noun

li n ‎(indeclinable)

li, Chinese unit of distance
li, Chinese unit of weight
li, a meaningful ceremony or ritual

Portuguese

Pronunciation

Rhymes: -i

Verb

First-person singular (eu) preterite indicative of ler

Romanian

Pronoun

li (dative form of ele; form of le)

to them

Usage notes

This word is used when le (which is dative) is combined with the following accusatives:

îl (the accusative of el, contracted as li-l)
îi (the accusative of ei, contracted as li-i)
le (the accusative of ele)
se (the reflexive accusative of all third-person pronouns)

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *li.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /li/

Particle

li ‎(Cyrillic spelling ли)

question-forming interrogative particle (postpositive, unlike other particles, never first word in a sentence)

poznaješ li me — do you know me?

jesi li stigao na odredište? — did you reach the destination?

jeste li ga vid(j)eli — have you seen him?

gd(j)e li se samo nalazimo? — where could we be?

kad li će doći? — when will he/they come?

je li? — Is it? (Is that so? Isn't that so?)
used as conjunction with da (not in Croatian, "da li" in any form is incorrect and should be replaced with "je li")

da li — whether

nemam pojma da li je došao — I have no idea whether he came (Croatian: "nemam pojma je li došao")
(as a conjunction) if
pokušaš li me napasti, ja ću ti uzvratiti — should you try to attack me, I'll strike you back (when "li" is used in this sense, it is usually translated as a subjunctive form "should", and when "ako" is used, it is usually translated as "if" - ako me pokušaš napasti = if you try to attack me)
used as an emphatic intensifier

a sn(ijeg) pada li pada — the snow just keeps falling and falling...

d(ij)ete plače li plače — the child just keeps crying and crying...

Sicilian

Etymology

From Latin illī or illae, nominative plurals of ille.

Article

li m f pl

(definite) the

Vietnamese

Alternative forms

Etymology

Sino-Vietnamese word from 璃 (“glass”)

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [l̪i˧˧]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [lɪj˧˧]
(Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [l̻ʲɪj˧˥]

Noun

(classifier cái) li

cup, glass (def. 2)

Volapük

Particle

Appended with a hyphen to a verb, it turns the entire clause it is in into a question.

Walloon

Alternative forms

l', el

Article

li m, f

the (before a singular name)

Pronoun

him, her, it (direct object, before verb)

Sicilian articles
	Masculine	Feminine
indefinite singular	un, nu	na
definite singular	lu, û	la, â
definite plural	li, î	li, î