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Mythic Mandarin

了不起 (liǎo bu qǐ): meaning and stroke order

了不起 (liǎo bu qǐ) means amazing, terrific, extraordinary.

了不起

Simplified
了不起
Traditional
了不起 (same form)
Pinyin
liǎo bu qǐ

Stroke order of 了不起

了

  • le (completed action marker); (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now)
  • liǎo to finish; (used with 得[de2] or 不[bu4] after a verb to express (im)possibility, as in 忘不了[wang4 bu5 liao3] "cannot forget")
  • liǎo (of eyes) bright; clear-sighted
  • 2 strokes
  • Traditional form: 瞭

Stroke by stroke

不

  • bù no; not so; (bound form) not; un-
  • 4 strokes

Stroke by stroke

起

  • qǐ to rise; to raise
  • 10 strokes

Stroke by stroke

Meaning of 了不起

  1. liǎo bu qǐ
    • amazing
    • terrific
    • extraordinary

Radicals of the characters

了
Radical 亅 (Kangxi radical 6) · 2 strokes · 乛 on top, 亅 below
不
Radical 一 (Kangxi radical 1) · 4 strokes · built from 丆 and 卜
起
Radical 走 (Kangxi radical 156) · 10 strokes · built from 走 and 己

Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan database. Structure: the shapes a character is written with (BabelStone IDS), not necessarily parts that carry meaning or sound.

了不起 in our stories

Preview version — Chinese review in progress.

  • 在那个用严刑逼出口供是常事的时代，这样的想法非常了不起。

    zài nàge yòng yánxíng bī chū kǒugòng shì chángshì de shídài zhèyàng de xiǎngfǎ fēicháng liǎobuqǐ

    In an age when forcing confessions by torture was commonplace, this idea was remarkable.

    From the story The flies that solved the case HSK 7–9 · Level 9

  • 这就是后来的“东坡肉”。一个刚刚从死亡边缘回来的人，却有心情研究怎么把肉炖得更香，这本身就很了不起。

    zhè jiùshì hòulái de dōngpōròu yí gè gānggāng cóng sǐwáng biānyuán huílai de rén què yǒu xīnqíng yánjiū zěnme bǎ ròu dùn de gèng xiāng zhè běnshēn jiù hěn liǎobuqǐ

    This became what is later known as Dongpo pork. That a man just back from the brink of death had the heart to study how to make stewed pork tastier is remarkable in itself.

    From the story Neither wind and rain nor sunshine HSK 7–9 · Level 9

Stories using 了不起

Dictionary data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Stroke data: Hanzi Writer data, derived from Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License). Animation: Hanzi Writer (MIT licence). Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan (Unicode License v3).