理 (lǐ) means Reason (principle - theory - manage - logic). Below are 24 of the 165 sentences on this site that use it — with pinyin, an English translation and audio. All of them were written by hand; none is machine generated.
Dictionary examples
经 理 现在很忙。
Jīnglǐ xiànzài hěn máng.
The manager is very busy right now.
Dictionary example · HSK 3 · 经理
我下午去 理 发。
Wǒ xiàwǔ qù lǐfà.
I am going for a haircut this afternoon.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 理发
这句话很难 理 解。
Zhè jù huà hěn nán lǐjiě.
This sentence is hard to understand.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 理解
他的 理 由很充分。
Tā de lǐyóu hěn chōngfèn.
His reasons are quite sufficient.
Dictionary example · HSK 5 · 充分
你说的很有道 理 。
Nǐ shuō de hěn yǒu dàolǐ.
What you say makes a lot of sense.
Dictionary example · HSK 5 · 道理
请合 理 安排时间。
Qǐng hélǐ ānpái shíjiān.
Please arrange your time sensibly.
Dictionary example · HSK 5 · 合理
Reading these is one thing; producing 理 yourself is another. Cloze in Context takes a sentence from this same bank, removes one word and asks you to put it back — beginner, intermediate and advanced.
From the graded readers
我花了整整三天时间整 理 。
wǒ huāle zhěngzhěng sāntiān shíjiān zhěnglǐ.
It took me three full days to sort it out.
Graded reader · HSK 3 · Moving House
我跑进电梯，看见了我的经 理 。
wǒ pǎo jìn diàntī, kànjiànle wǒ de(possessive) jīnglǐ.
I ran into the lift and saw my manager.
Graded reader · HSK 2 · Late for Work
那天下着雨，我特别想找个 理 由不去。
nà / nèi tiānxià zhāo / zhaó / zhe / zhù / zhuó yǔ, wǒ tèbié xiǎng zhǎo gè lǐyóu bù qù.
It was raining, and I badly wanted an excuse not to go.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · Keeping Up Running
可是奇怪的是，没有一个人因此不 理 我。
kěshì qíguài de / dì shì, méiyǒu yīgè rén yīncǐ bùlǐ wǒ.
But oddly enough, not a single person stopped speaking to me.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · Learning to Say No
整 理 旧东西的时候，我在一本书里发现了一张老照片。
zhěnglǐ jiù dōngxī de / dì shíhou, wǒ zài yī běnshū lǐ fāxiànle yī zhāng lǎo zhàopiàn.
While sorting out old things I found an old photograph inside a book.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · An Old Photograph
From the travel phrasebook
麻烦帮我处 理 一下。
Máfan bāng wǒ chǔlǐ yíxià.
Please sort this out for me.
Travel phrasebook · Sourcing online (1688 and Alibaba)
你们打算怎么处 理 ？
Nǐmen dǎsuàn zěnme chǔlǐ?
How do you plan to handle this?
Travel phrasebook · Quality problems and claims
理 appears in 165 sentences on this site; the 24 shortest and most direct are shown. The rest are on the pages they were written for — the graded readers, the phrasebook and the grammar library.
Words that contain 理
Each of these has sentences of its own, so you can see the character doing a different job in each one.
Questions about 理
How is 理 used in a sentence?
This page shows 165 sentences using 理 (lǐ, "Reason (principle - theory - manage - logic)"), each with pinyin, an English translation and audio. Every one of them was written by hand for this site.
Are these sentences machine generated?
No. They come from the site's own dictionary examples, graded readers, travel phrasebook and grammar library — all written by a person. A word with no sentence gets no page here, rather than a page of invented ones.
Why do some sentences show 理 inside a longer word?
Because that is where a single character usually lives. Seeing 理 inside the words it builds is how the character stops being an isolated symbol and starts being something you can read.
Where can I see the full entry for 理?
The dictionary page for 理 has its stroke order, its traditional form, every sense the dictionary lists and a character-by-character breakdown. It is linked at the top of this page.
Keep going
Read the full entry for 理, write a sentence of your own and check it in the Pinyin Annotator, or search the whole sentence bank for another word.
Another word
Chinese, pinyin or English. Tone marks optional.