yǎn lèi
tear; eyedrop
Practice writing with stroke order guidance, audio pronunciation, and interactive exercises in our mobile app.
Step-by-step stroke order animations
Native speaker audio pronunciation
Interactive writing recognition
我忍不住流下了眼泪。
wǒ rěn bù zhù liú xiàle yǎn lèi.
I couldn't help but shed tears.
她的眼泪夺眶而出。
tā de yǎn lèi duó kuàng ér chū.
Her tears welled up in her eyes and spilled out.
他眼含热泪地笑了。
tā yǎn hán rè lèi de xiào le.
He smiled with tears in his eyes.
泪 (lèi)
tear
热泪 (rèlèi)
hot tears
欢笑 (huān xiào)
laughter
喜悦 (xǐ yuè)
joy
The Chinese word for tears, 眼泪 (yǎnlèi), is a compound of two characters: 眼 (yǎn), meaning "eye," and 泪 (lèi), meaning "tear." The character 眼 is a pictograph of an eye, while the character 泪 is a phonetic compound of the character 水 (shuǐ), meaning "water," and the character 累 (lèi), meaning "to flow." Thus, the character 泪 can be understood as "water that flows from the eyes." The compound 眼泪, therefore, literally means "eye tears" or "tears from the eyes."
