# 美 — beauty; beautiful

美 means “beauty; beautiful”. It is a JLPT N3 kanji written with 9 strokes. On'yomi: ビ (bi). Kun'yomi: うつく(しい) (utsukushii). You'll see it in words such as 美しい (utsukushii, “beautiful; pretty”).

- Meaning: beauty; beautiful
- On'yomi: ビ (bi)
- Kun'yomi: うつく(しい) (utsukushii)
- Strokes: 9
- Level: JLPT N3 · set Qualities 3

## How to remember 美

A big (大) fat sheep (羊): to a herder, beauty itself.

Parts: 羊 sheep · 大 big

## Words with 美

| Word | Reading | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 美しい | うつくしい (utsukushii) | beautiful; pretty |
| 美 | び (bi) | beauty |

## Don't confuse it with

[羊](https://moji.ninja/n1-kanji/sheep/) · [洋](https://moji.ninja/n4-kanji/western/) · [善](https://moji.ninja/n2-kanji/virtuous/) · [祥](https://moji.ninja/n1-kanji/auspicious/)

## More in the “Qualities 3” set

[違](https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/differ/) · [独](https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/alone/) · [準](https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/standard/) · [被](https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/incur/) · [若](https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/young/) · [極](https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/extreme/) · [美](https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/beauty/) · [非](https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/non/)

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From Moji Ninja (https://moji.ninja/), a free app for learning hiragana, katakana and the JLPT kanji from N5 to N1 with spaced repetition. Page: https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/beauty/. Last updated 2026-11-01.