楼 meaning and stroke order
House with more than 1 story; storied building; floor
How to write 楼, stroke by stroke
13 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 楼
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- house with more than 1 story
- storied building
- floor
How 楼 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Wood.
木 gives the meaning and 娄 hints at the sound.
Radical: 木 (tree), shared by 388 characters on this site.
How to remember 楼
楼 (lóu) combines 木 (wood) for meaning with 娄 (lóu) for sound. Picture wooden beams stacked up, level after level, to make a building with many floors.
楼 means a multi-story building, and it also counts floors, as in 三楼 (sān lóu) "the third floor." It appears in everyday words like 楼上 (lóu shàng), 楼下 (lóu xià) and 大楼 (dà lóu). Example: 我住在五楼。(Wǒ zhù zài wǔ lóu.) I live on the fifth floor.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes write the right side as 数 or 类 because the shapes look alike. The correct part is 娄, with 米 on top of 女. Also note that Chinese floor numbers usually start at 一楼 for the ground floor, so 二楼 is one level up, not two.
Common words with 楼
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 楼上 | lóu shàng | upstairs; (Internet slang) previous poster in a forum thread | HSK 1 |
| 楼下 | lóu xià | downstairs | HSK 1 |
| 教学楼 | jiàoxuélóu | school building; academic building | HSK 1 |
| 大楼 | dà lóu | building (a relatively large, multistory one) | HSK 4 |
| 楼梯 | lóutī | stair; staircase | HSK 4 |
| 上楼 | shàng lóu | to go upstairs | HSK 4 |
| 下楼 | xià lóu | to go downstairs | HSK 4 |
| 楼房 | lóufáng | a building of two or more stories | HSK 6 |
| 楼道 | lóudào | corridor; passageway (in storied building) | HSK 6 |
| 写字楼 | xiězìlóu | office building | HSK 6 |
| 酒楼 | jiǔlóu | restaurant | HSK 7-9 |
| 居民楼 | jūmínlóu | apartment building; residential tower | HSK 7-9 |
| 阁楼 | gélóu | garret; loft | |
| 跳楼 | tiàolóu | to jump from a building (to kill oneself); fig. to sell at a large discount (in advertisin |
楼 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 楼
How many strokes are in 楼?
楼 is written with 13 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 楼 mean?
楼 (lóu) means house with more than 1 story; storied building; floor. A common word with it is 楼上 (lóu shàng), meaning "upstairs; (Internet slang) previous poster in a forum thread".
How do you pronounce 楼?
楼 is pronounced lóu, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 楼?
The radical of 楼 is 木, which carries the idea of "tree". Dictionaries list 楼 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 楼?
The traditional form of 楼 is 樓. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 楼 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 楼 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 楼 is part of the HSK 1 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard, and you are expected to write it by hand from HSK 1.
What is the difference between 楼 and 层?
楼 can mean the building itself or a floor, while 层 (céng) is mainly a measure word for levels. You can say 这座楼有十层 (zhè zuò lóu yǒu shí céng), "this building has ten floors," but 楼 cannot be used that way as a measure word.
Why do people online say 楼上 to reply to someone?
In forum threads each post is like a floor stacked on the one before. So 楼上 (lóu shàng) means "the poster above me," and 楼主 (lóuzhǔ) means the person who started the thread.