How to Write 楣 (méi) — Meaning “lintel / crossbeam”

Think of a door frame with a wooden beam above it that looks like a thick eyebrow. The character combines 木 (wood) and 眉 (eyebrow), so you can remember it as the "wooden eyebrow" that sits over a doorway.

The left radical 木 should be narrow, taking about one-third of the space, while the right 眉 is wider. A common mistake is making 木 too big or forgetting the short horizontal stroke inside 眉 (the stroke between the top and bottom parts).

桫 and 桲 are both names of trees, while 楣 refers to a part of a building (a lintel). Visually, 楣 has 眉 (eyebrow) on the right, 桫 has 沙 (sand) on the right, and 桲 has 孛 (comet) on the right, so the right-side component is the key difference.

楣 appears in words like 门楣 (door lintel) and the idiom 光耀门楣 (to bring honor to one's family). Culturally, a decorated lintel once symbolized a family's status, so the character often carries a sense of family pride and tradition, though it is less common in daily conversation.

Common words containing 楣 include: 门楣 (mén méi) — Lintel; 光耀门楣 (guāng yào mén méi) — to bring honor to one's family; 楣梁 (méi liáng) — lintel.