莱 meaning and stroke order
Weed, goosefoot; fallow field; used in transliterations
How to write 莱, stroke by stroke
10 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 莱
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- name of weed plant (fat hen, goosefoot, pigweed etc)
- Chenopodium album
How 莱 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Grass.
艹 gives the meaning and 来 hints at the sound.
Radical: 艹 (grass), shared by 421 characters on this site.
How to remember 莱
The grass radical 艹 on top tells you it is a plant, and 来 (lái) underneath gives the sound. Picture a weed that just keeps coming (来) back into your field.
Today 莱 mostly appears in transliterations of foreign names and words rather than as the word for a weed. Example: 我想喝莱姆汁。(Wǒ xiǎng hē láimǔ zhī.) I want to drink lime juice.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes write just 来 and forget the grass radical, or confuse 莱 with 菜 (cài, vegetable), which also has 艹 on top but 采 underneath. Check the bottom part: 来 for lái, 采 for cài.
Common words with 莱
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 莱姆 | láimǔ | (loanword) lime |
莱 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 莱
How many strokes are in 莱?
莱 is written with 10 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 莱 mean?
莱 (lái) means weed, goosefoot; fallow field; used in transliterations. A common word with it is 莱姆 (láimǔ), meaning "(loanword) lime".
How do you pronounce 莱?
莱 is pronounced lái, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 莱?
The radical of 莱 is 艹, which carries the idea of "grass". Dictionaries list 莱 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 莱?
The traditional form of 莱 is 萊. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 莱 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
What foreign names use 莱?
It is common in place names and personal names, such as 莱茵河 (Láiyīn Hé, the Rhine River) and 莱比锡 (Láibǐxī, Leipzig). It is also used in names like 莱昂 for Leon.
Is 莱姆 the only word for lime in Chinese?
No. 青柠 (qīngníng) is also very common, especially in mainland China. 莱姆 is a sound-based loanword and appears often on drink menus and in Taiwan.