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耽美

Mandarin · pinyin dān měi

(slang) boys' love, aka BL (genre of homoerotic online literature)

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Characters in this entry

耽: dān · indulge in; be negligent
美: měi · beautiful, pretty; pleasing

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–3 · dan1 mei3

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

daam1 mei5

Cantonese word readings for 耽美. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

love between men or boys, especially as a literary genre; boys' love (BL)

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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