U+59B9 "妹" CJK Unified Ideograph-# Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
妹
U+59B9 "妹" CJK Unified Ideograph-# is a Chinese character that primarily means "younger sister" in both Chinese and Japanese, where it is used in words like "imōto" (妹妹) in Japanese and "mèimèi" (妹妹) in Chinese, though in Japanese it can also appear in compound terms for "maiden" or "girl." It is composed of the radical for "woman" (女) on the left, which suggests its feminine association, and a phonetic component on the right that hints at its pronunciation (often "mèi" or "mai"). This character is part of the CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) unified ideographs block, encoded for use across East Asian text systems, and it carries a warm or familial connotation in contexts like literature, naming, and daily conversation.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+59B9 |
| 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 | 妹 |
| HTML Hex Encoding | 妹 |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0xE5 0xA6 0xB9 |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0x59B9 |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x000059B9 |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \u59b9 |
Unicode Properties
Unihan Properties
| kBigFive | A966 |
| kCCCII | 21395C |
| kCNS1986 | 1-4C68 |
| kCNS1992 | 1-4C68 |
| kCangjie | VJD |
| kCantonese | mui6 |
| kCihaiT | 380.505 |
| kCowles | 2765 2776 |
| kDaeJaweon | 0522.230 |
| kDefinition | younger sister |
| kEACC | 21395C |
| kFanqie | 莫佩 |
| kFenn | 495A |
| kFennIndex | 334.05 |
| kFourCornerCode | 4549.0 |
| kGB0 | 3535 |
| kGB1 | 3535 |
| kGradeLevel | 1 |
| kGSR | 0531k |
| kHangul | 매:0E |
| kHanYu | 21034.060 |
| kHanyuPinlu | mèi(158) mei(100) |
| kHanyuPinyin | 21034.060:mèi |
| kHKGlyph | 0888 |
| kIICore | AGTJHKMP |
| kIRGDaeJaweon | 0522.230 |
| kIRGHanyuDaZidian | 21034.060 |
| kIRGKangXi | 0257.280 |
| kIRG_GSource | G0-4343 |
| kIRG_HSource | HB1-A966 |
| kIRG_JSource | J0-4B65 |
| kIRG_KPSource | KP0-DCBC |
| kIRG_KSource | K0-5859 |
| kIRG_TSource | T1-4C68 |
| kIRG_VSource | V1-516C |
| kJapanese | マイ バイ メ いもうと いも |
| kJoyoKanji | 2010 |
| kKoreanEducationHanja | 2007 |
| kTGH | 2013:1324 |
| kJapaneseKun | IMOUTO IMO |
| kJapaneseOn | MAI |
| kJis0 | 4369 |
| kKangXi | 0257.280 |
| kKorean | MAY |
| kLau | 2212 2213 |
| kMainlandTelegraph | 1188 |
| kMandarin | mèi |
| kMatthews | 4410 |
| kMeyerWempe | 1887 1898 |
| kMojiJoho | MJ009616 |
| kMorohashi | 06138 |
| kNelson | 1204 |
| kPhonetic | 894 |
| kRSAdobe_Japan1_6 | C+3731+38.3.5 |
| kRSUnicode | 38.5 |
| kSBGY | 387.48 |
| kSMSZD2003Index | 153.20 |
| kSMSZD2003Readings | mèi粵mui6 |
| kSpoofingVariant | U+59BA |
| kTaiwanTelegraph | 1188 |
| kTang | *mə̀i |
| kTGHZ2013 | 246.190:mèi |
| kTotalStrokes | 8 |
| kUnihanCore2020 | GHJKMPT |
| kVietnamese | muội |
| kXerox | 243:247 |
| kXHC1983 | 0774.110:mèi |