U+55B1 "喱" CJK Unified Ideograph-# Unicode Character

U+55B1 "喱" CJK Unified Ideograph-# is a Chinese character used in modern Mandarin and Cantonese, primarily functioning as a phonetic component in transliterations, most notably in the word "カレー" (curry) where it appears as "咖喱" (gālí), with "喱" representing the "li" sound. In addition to its role in loanword transcription, it can also carry a meaning related to a small jar or pot in historical context, though this usage is less common today. The character is built from the "mouth" radical (口) on the left, indicating its association with speech or sounds, and the phonetic element "厘" on the right, which provides pronunciation cues. As part of the CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) unified ideographs block, it is encoded for use across multiple East Asian languages, though it is most frequently encountered in Chinese texts, especially in culinary or transliterated terms.

General Properties

Code Point	U+55B1
Version Added	1.1
Name	CJK Unified Ideograph-#
Block	CJK Unified Ideographs
General Category	Other Letter
Canonical Combining Class	Not Reordered
Bidirectional Class	Left To Right

Encodings

HTML Decimal Encoding	喱
HTML Hex Encoding	喱
UTF-8 Encoding	0xE5 0x96 0xB1
UTF-16 Encoding	0x55B1
UTF-32 Encoding	0x000055B1
C/C++/Java Escape	\u55b1

Unicode Properties

NFC Quick Check	Yes
NFD Quick Check	Yes
NFKC Quick Check	Yes
NFKD Quick Check	Yes
Numeric Type	None
Numeric Value	NaN
Line Break	Ideographic
East Asian Width	Wide
Script	Han
Script Extensions	Han
Indic Syllabic Category	Other
ID Start	Yes
XID Start	Yes
ID Continue	Yes
XID Continue	Yes
Alphabetic	Yes
Vertical Orientation	Upright
Grapheme Base	Yes
Grapheme Cluster Break	Other
Word Break	Other
Sentence Break	OLetter
Ideographic	Yes
Unified Ideograph	Yes

Unihan Properties

kBigFive	B3ED
kCCCII	213667
kCNS1986	1-5E53
kCNS1992	1-5E53
kCangjie	RMWG
kCantonese	lei1
kCihaiT	287.201
kCowles	2273
kDaeJaweon	0423.180
kDefinition	gramme; syllable
kEACC	213667
kFourCornerCode	6101.4
kGB0	6412
kGB1	6412
kGradeLevel	5
kHanYu	10652.020
kHanyuPinyin	10652.020:lí
kHKGlyph	0628
kIICore	AGTHM
kIRGDaeJaweon	0423.180
kIRGHanyuDaZidian	10652.020
kIRGKangXi	0201.121
kIRG_GSource	G0-602C
kIRG_HSource	HB1-B3ED
kIRG_JSource	JMJ-008495
kIRG_KSource	K2-2823
kIRG_TSource	T1-5E53
kJapanese	リ
kTGH	2013:5131
kJapaneseOn	RI
kKangXi	0201.121
kMainlandTelegraph	5070
kMandarin	lí
kMeyerWempe	1511
kMojiJoho	MJ008495
kMorohashi	04019
kPhonetic	787
kRSUnicode	30.9
kSMSZD2003Index	112.01
kSMSZD2003Readings	lí粵lei1
kTGHZ2013	215.010:lí
kTotalStrokes	12
kUnihanCore2020	GHMT
kXerox	317:271
kXHC1983	0692.010:lí