髅 meaning and stroke order
Skull, skeleton
How to write 髅, stroke by stroke
18 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
Meaning of 髅
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- used in 髑髏|髑髅[du2 lou2] and 骷髏|骷髅[ku1 lou2]
How 髅 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Bone.
骨 gives the meaning and 娄 hints at the sound.
Radical: 骨 (bone), shared by 21 characters on this site.
How to remember 髅
On the left is 骨 (gǔ, bone), which tells you the meaning, and on the right is 娄 (lóu), which gives the sound. Picture a pile of bones that says "lóu" and you have a skull or skeleton.
髅 almost never appears alone. It lives inside two-character words, mainly 骷髅 (kūlóu, skeleton or skull) and the more literary 髑髅 (dúlóu, skull). Example: 万圣节的时候，门口挂着一个骷髅。(Wànshèngjié de shíhou, ménkǒu guàzhe yí ge kūlóu.) At Halloween, a skeleton hangs by the door.
Common mistake: Learners often write the right side as 楼 (lóu, building) because it sounds the same and is more familiar, but 髅 uses plain 娄 with no 木 on the left. In 骷髅 the second syllable is often said with a neutral tone in speech, so do not be surprised to hear kūlou.
Common words with 髅
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 骷髅 | kūlóu | human skeleton; human skull |
Questions about 髅
How many strokes are in 髅?
髅 is written with 18 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 髅 mean?
髅 (lóu) means skull, skeleton. A common word with it is 骷髅 (kūlóu), meaning "human skeleton; human skull".
How do you pronounce 髅?
髅 is pronounced lóu, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 髅?
The radical of 髅 is 骨, which carries the idea of "bone". Dictionaries list 髅 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 髅?
The traditional form of 髅 is 髏. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 髅 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
What is the difference between 骷髅 and 髑髅?
Both refer to a skull or skeleton. 骷髅 (kūlóu) is the everyday word you will hear in movies, games and Halloween talk. 髑髅 (dúlóu) is literary and mostly appears in older texts.
Can I use 髅 by itself to mean skull?
No. According to the dictionary, 髅 is only used inside 骷髅 and 髑髅. To say skull on its own in modern Chinese, use one of those words.