li

See also: Appendix:Variations of "li"

Contents

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /liː/
• Rhymes: -iː

Etymology 1

An early romanization of Chinese Mandarin 里 (lǐ). As a Korean unit, via the Yale romanization of Korean 리 (ri), from the Chinese distance.

Alternative forms

• (Korea): ri

Noun

li (plural lis or li)

1. The Chinese mile, a traditional unit of distance equal to 1500 chis or 150 zhangs, now standardized as a half-kilometer (500 meters).
2. The Korean mile, a traditional unit of distance equivalent to about 393 m.

Synonyms

• (China): Chinese mile
• (Korea): Korean mile

Translations

Chinese unit of distance

• Chinese: 里 (lǐ), 市里 (shìlǐ)
• Dutch: li (nl)
• French: li (fr) m

• Japanese: 里 (ja) (り, ri)
• Korean: 리 (ko) (里, ri)
• Swedish: li (sv) c

Etymology 2

From Mandarin 市厘 (lí).

Noun

li (plural li)

1. 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)

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

Etymology 4

From Mandarin 鬲 (lì).

Noun

li (plural li)

1. An ancient Chinese cauldron having three hollow legs.

Etymology 5

Symbol

li

1. (mathematics) Logarithmic integral function

Etymology 6

Altered from la. vowel changed to 'e' to signify a raised note.

Noun

li (uncountable)

1. (music) In solfège, the raised sixth note of a major scale (the note A-sharp in the fixed-do system).

Synonyms

• A-sharp
• B-flat
• ta
• te

Anagrams

• I'l, IL, il-

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Albanian

Etymology 1

Noun

li f

1. smallpox

Etymology 2

From Latin līnum.

Noun

li m

1. flax

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Aromanian

Etymology

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

Pronoun

li f (short/unstressed accusative form of eali)

1. (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)

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Catalan

Etymology

From Latin illī, dative common singular of ille.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈli/
• Rhymes: -i

Pronoun

li (enclitic and proclitic)

1. 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-.

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

li m (uncountable)

1. li (Chinese unit of distance).

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Esperanto

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /li/
• Hyphenation: li

Pronoun

li (accusative lin, possessive lia)

1. (personal pronoun) he

Derived terms

• ŝli

Related terms

• ili (“they”)

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li/

Noun

li m (plural lis)

1. li (Chinese unit of distance).

Further reading

• “li” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• il

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Guinea-Bissau Creole

Etymology

From Portuguese ali. Cognates with Kabuverdianu li.

Adverb

li

1. here

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Haitian Creole

Etymology 1

From French lui.

Pronoun

li

1. he
2. him
3. she
4. her
5. it

Etymology 2

From French lire.

Verb

li

1.  To read

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Ido

Etymology

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

Pronoun

li pl

1. they, them

Related terms

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

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Interlingue

Article

li

1. the

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Istriot

Article

li

1. 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,

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Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li/, [l̺i]
• Homophone: lì

Etymology 1

From Latin illī, nominative masculine plural of ille.

Alternative forms

• -li (enclitic)

Pronoun

li m pl (female le, singular lo)

1. (accusative) them

   Li ricordo. ― I remember them.

Usage notes

Never elides.

See also

Italian personal pronouns

Number	Person	Gender	Nominative	Reflexive	Accusative	Dative	Locative	Genitive	Disjunctive
Singular	first	—	io	mi, m', -mi			—		me
	second	—	tu	ti, t', -ti					te
	third	m	lui	si2, s', -si	lo, l', -lo	gli, -gli	ci, c', vi, v' (formal)	ne, n'	lui, sé
		f 1	lei, Lei1		la, l', La1, -la	le3, Le1, -le			lei, Lei1, sé
Plural	first	—	noi	ci, c', -ci			—		noi
	second	—1	voi, Voi1	vi, v', -vi, Vi1					voi, Voi1
	third	m	loro, Loro1	si, s', -si	li, -li	gli, -gli, loro (formal), Loro1	ci, c', vi, v' (formal)	ne, n'	loro, Loro1, sé
		f 1			le, -le
1	The feminine gender third person forms and second plural person forms are also used as formal terms of address referring to second singular person subjects, sometimes capitalised as Lei, Vi, Loro etc. to distinguish them.
2	Also used as indefinite pronoun meaning “one”, and to form the passive.
3	In informal speech sometimes replaced with gli (nonstandard).

Etymology 2

Variant of gli.

Article

li m pl (singular lo)

1. Archaic form of gli.

   li studenti ― the students

Pronoun

li m pl (singular lo)

1. (dative) Archaic form of gli.

Etymology 3

Adverb

li

1. Misspelling of lì.

Anagrams

• il

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Kabuverdianu

Etymology

From Portuguese ali.

Adverb

li

1. here

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Kurdish

Preposition

li

1. in

   li Kurdistanê (in Kurdistan)

2. li ser: on:
   li ser maseyê (on the table)

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Livonian

Verb

li

1. 2nd person singular imperative form of lǟdõ

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Louisiana Creole French

Etymology

From French lui.

Pronoun

li

1. he
2. him
3. she
4. her

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Maltese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li/

Pronoun

li

1. (relative) who; that

   ir-raġel li seraq il-karozza

   the man who stole the car

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Mandarin

Romanization

li (Zhuyin ˙ㄌㄧ)

1. Pinyin transcription of 哩
2. Pinyin transcription of 裏
3. Pinyin transcription of 裡
4. Pinyin transcription of 里

li

1. Nonstandard spelling of lī.
2. Nonstandard spelling of lí.
3. Nonstandard spelling of lǐ.
4. 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.

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Mauritian Creole

Etymology

From French le, lui

Pronoun

li

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

See also

Mauritian Creole personal pronouns

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

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Michif

Etymology

From French le.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [lɪ]

Article

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

1. the

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Miskito

Noun

li

1. water

References

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

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Neapolitan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /i/

Pronoun

li

1. Alternative form of 'i

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Niuatoputapu

Article

li

1. the

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Norman

Etymology

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

Pronoun

li

1. (Guernsey) him

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Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse hlíð

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /liː/

Noun

li f or m (definite singular lia or lien, indefinite plural lier, definite plural liene)

1. A sloping mountainside or hillside covered with grass or forest.

References

• “li” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse hlíð

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /liː/

Noun

li f (definite singular lia, indefinite plural lier, definite plural liene)

1. A sloping mountainside or hillside covered with grass or forest.

References

• “li” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

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Novial

Article

li

1. the

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Old French

Etymology 1

From Latin ille (“that”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li/

Article

li

1. 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

li

1. 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

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Old Occitan

Etymology

From Latin ille (“that”).

Article

li

1. the (masculine nominative singular and plural definite article)

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Polish

Etymology 1

Adverb

li (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) only

Etymology 2

From Mandarin 里 (lǐ)

Noun

li n (indeclinable)

1. li, Chinese unit of distance
2. li, Chinese unit of weight

Etymology 3

From Mandarin 禮／礼 (lǐ)

Noun

li n (indeclinable)

1. li, a meaningful ceremony or ritual

Further reading

• li in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Portuguese

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -i

Verb

li

1. First-person singular (eu) preterite indicative of ler

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Romanian

Pronoun

li (dative form of ele; form of le)

1. 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)

See also

• vi
• ni

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Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *li.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li/

Particle

li (Cyrillic spelling ли)

1. 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?)

2. used as conjunction with da (except in Croatian, "je li" is used instead)

   da li — whether

   nemam pojma da li je došao — I have no idea whether he came (Croatian: "nemam pojma je li došao")

3. (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)

4. used as an emphatic intensifier

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

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

See also

• zar (interrogative particle)

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Sicilian

Etymology

From Latin illī or illae, nominative plurals of ille.

Article

li m pl or f pl

1. (definite) the

See also

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

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Vietnamese

Alternative forms

• ly

Etymology

Sino-Vietnamese word from 璃 (“glass”).

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [li˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [lɪj˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [lɪj˧˧]

Noun

(classifier cái) li

1. cup, glass (def. 2)

See also

• chén
• cốc
• tách

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Volapük

Particle

li

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

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Walloon

Article

li (after an open syllabe and/or before a vowel : l', plural : les, plural after an open syllabe and before a vowel: ls)

1. the

   Li mwaisse

   The master

   Li maistrece

   The mistress

   L' ome

   The man

   C' est li l' mwaisse

   He is the master

   Les måjhons

   The houses

   Les omes

   The men

   Çou sont ls åtes tchesteas

   These are the other castles

Pronoun

li

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

   C' est li l' mwaisse

   It's him who's the master

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Westrobothnian

Etymology 1

Noun

li f

1. Alternative form of lid

Etymology 2

From Old Norse lé, specifically the accusative léa, from Proto-Germanic *lewô. The duosyllabic accent might be derived from the definite singular form.

Pronunciation

• (Hössjö) IPA^(key): [lìː]
• (Skellefteå) IPA^(key): [lèɪ̯ːj]
• (Luleå) IPA^(key): [lø̀ʏ̯ː]
• (Kalix) IPA^(key): [lɛ̀ɪ̯ː]

  Rhymes: -ìː

  (ð-dropping) Rhymes: -ìː, -ìːð

  (northern í-ý merger) Rhymes: -ìː, -ỳː

Noun

lî m (definite singular lien)

1. scythe

Compounds

• libɑka (“the trailing edge of a scythe”)
• liörv (“shaft on a scythe”)

Etymology 3

Noun

li n (definite singular liä)

1. afterbirth from calving

Synonyms

• ättföring f
• leg n

Etymology 4

From Old Norse líða, from Proto-Germanic *līþaną. The sense “suffer” may be borrowed from Middle Low German, but derive from the same root in any case.

Verb

li

1. To elapse.

   he li på dɑgen

   The day draws to a close.

   he var brɑno lide på

   It was quite late.

2. To come to an end, run out.

   Da mâtn fâr lii fara ṣwiṇa strii.

   When the food begins to run low, the swine begin to fight. (proverb)

3. To suffer.

References