萊 meaning and stroke order
Weed, goosefoot; fallow field; used in transliterations
How to write 萊, stroke by stroke
12 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 萊
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- name of weed plant (fat hen, goosefoot, pigweed etc)
- Chenopodium album
How 萊 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Grass.
艹 gives the meaning and 來 hints at the sound.
Radical: 艹 (grass), shared by 421 characters on this site.
How to remember 萊
Grass 艹 on top tells you this is a plant, and 來 (lái) underneath gives the sound. Picture weeds that 'come' (來) up on their own in an unused field.
Today 萊 (simplified 莱) mostly appears in transliterations of foreign names and words rather than as the word for the weed. Example: 莱姆很酸。(Láimǔ hěn suān.) Limes are very sour.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes read 萊 with the wrong tone because they skip the grass top and guess. It keeps the second tone of 來 (lái). Also do not confuse it with 菜 (cài, vegetable), which has 采 under the grass instead of 來.
Common words with 萊
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 萊姆 | láimǔ | (loanword) lime |
Questions about 萊
How many strokes are in 萊?
萊 is written with 12 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 萊 mean?
萊 (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 萊?
萊 is pronounced lái, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 萊?
The radical of 萊 is 艹, which carries the idea of "grass". Dictionaries list 萊 under this radical.
What is the simplified form of 萊?
萊 is a traditional character. Its simplified form is 莱, used in mainland China and Singapore.
Where will I see 萊 or 莱 in everyday Chinese?
Mostly in names transliterated from other languages, such as 莱姆 (láimǔ, lime). It is rarely used on its own to mean the weed plant in modern speech.
What does 萊 mean as a plant?
It names a common weed, Chenopodium album, known in English as fat hen, goosefoot, or pigweed. By extension it can also refer to a fallow field overgrown with such weeds.