美麗島

Chinese

		beautiful; beauty	island
trad. (美麗島)		美麗	島
simp. (美丽岛)		美丽	岛

Etymology

Calque of Portuguese Ilha Formosa (“Beautiful Isle”).

Pronunciation

Mandarin
(Pinyin): Měilìdǎo

(Zhuyin): ㄇㄟˇ ㄌㄧˋ ㄉㄠˇ
Cantonese (Jyutping): mei⁵ lai⁶ dou²
Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): Bí-lē-tó

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: Měilìdǎo
  - Zhuyin: ㄇㄟˇ ㄌㄧˋ ㄉㄠˇ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: Měilìdǎo
  - Wade–Giles: Mei³-li⁴-tao³
  - Yale: Měi-lì-dǎu
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Meeilihdao
  - Palladius: Мэйлидао (Mɛjlidao)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /meɪ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ li⁵¹ tɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
  - Jyutping: mei⁵ lai⁶ dou²
  - Yale: méih laih dóu
  - Cantonese Pinyin: mei⁵ lai⁶ dou²
  - Guangdong Romanization: méi⁵ lei⁶ dou²
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /mei̯¹³ lɐi̯²² tou̯³⁵/
Southern Min
- (Hokkien)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Bí-lē-tó
  - Tâi-lô: Bí-lē-tó
  - Phofsit Daibuun: bylexdoir
  - IPA (Xiamen): /bi⁵³⁻⁴⁴ le²²⁻²¹ to⁵³/
  - IPA (Quanzhou): /bi⁵⁵⁴⁻²⁴ le⁴¹⁻²² to⁵⁵⁴/
  - IPA (Zhangzhou): /bi⁵³⁻⁴⁴ le²²⁻²¹ to⁵³/
  - IPA (Taipei): /bi⁵³⁻⁴⁴ le³³⁻¹¹ to⁵³/
  - IPA (Kaohsiung): /bi⁴¹⁻⁴⁴ le³³⁻²¹ tɤ⁴¹/

Proper noun

美麗島

Formosa (name given to Taiwan island)

Synonyms

寶島／宝岛 (Bǎodǎo)
福爾摩沙／福尔摩沙 (Fú'ěrmóshā)

References

“美麗島”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.