impressive; fierce; severe
HSK level
厉害 is written with 15 strokes (厉: 5, 害: 10). The animation replays automatically.
厉害 (lìhai) is a high-frequency spoken adjective with two sides.
As praise it means "impressive, awesome, formidable" — 你太厉害了! ("you're amazing!") admires someone's skill or ability. As a description of intensity it means "fierce, severe, intense" — 疼得厉害 ("hurts badly"), 骂得很厉害 ("scolded harshly"), 病得厉害 ("seriously ill").
Context and tone tell the two apart: aimed at a person's talent it is a compliment; aimed at pain, weather, illness, or criticism it signals something is strong to the point of being hard to handle. The second syllable is toneless (lìhai). Don't confuse it with the written noun 利害 (lìhài, "pros and cons / stakes"), which looks similar but means something entirely different.
Note: Very common in speech. As praise it is casual and warm; in writing, prefer 优秀 or 出色 for a formal tone.
Character by character
Memory hook: Something 厉 (severe) enough to 害 (do harm) is 厉害 — fierce, or impressively so.
厉害 appears in 2 Fluentide podcast episodes at natural native speed — each with the full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
你中文说得太厉害了！
Nǐ Zhōngwén shuō de tài lìhai le!
Your Chinese is amazing!
spoken
今天风刮得很厉害。
Jīntiān fēng guā de hěn lìhai.
The wind is blowing really hard today.
spoken
他咳嗽得厉害，应该去看医生。
Tā késou de lìhai, yīnggāi qù kàn yīshēng.
He's coughing badly and should see a doctor.
spoken
这个对手很厉害，我们要小心。
Zhège duìshǒu hěn lìhai, wǒmen yào xiǎoxīn.
This opponent is formidable; we need to be careful.
neutral
棒 is casual praise ("great, cool") for a thing or performance. 厉害 praises skill or capability and can also mean "fierce/severe" — a range 棒 doesn't have.
For the "severe" sense, 严重 is the formal written choice (严重的问题, a serious problem). 厉害 is the spoken equivalent and can't mean "impressive."
利害 (both syllables toned) is a noun meaning "advantages and disadvantages / stakes," as in 利害关系 (interests at stake). 厉害 (lìhai, second syllable neutral) is the adjective "impressive/fierce."
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