剌 (lá): perverse, unreasonable

剌 (lá) is a Chinese character meaning “perverse.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 束 (phonetic) and 刂 (semantic). It ranks #3632 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 剌 knife. Its radical form 刂 (knife) appears in many related characters such as 到 (dào, to reach), 前 (qián, front), 分 (fēn, to divide).

Spoken pronunciation
Radical: 刂 knife9 strokesFrequency #3632束 phonetic刂 semantic

Definitions

  1. perverse
  2. unreasonable

Etymology & Origin

剌

pictophoneticknife

Decomposition: ⿰束刂 (layout: left-right)

Components:束phonetic刂semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Practice writing 剌 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
满剌加proper-nounmǎn là jiāMing Dynasty name for modern day Malacca
扎马剌丁zā mǎ lá dīngJamal al-Din ibn Muhammad al-Najjari (13th century), famous Persian astronomer and scholar who served Khubilai Khan 忽...
札马剌丁zhá mǎ lá dīngsee 紮馬剌丁|扎马剌丁
大剌剌adverbdà là làpompous
瓦剌proper-nounwǎ làOirat Mongols (alliance of tribes of Western Mongolia) (Ming Dynasty term)
榜葛剌proper-nounbǎng gé làold Chinese name for Bengal, now written 孟加拉
6
Total compounds
0
As first character
33
As last character
67
As middle character

剌 appears in 6 compound words: 0 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 67 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习剌字需要反复练习，才能写得工整。

xué xí lá zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Writing the character "剌" requires repeated practice to ensure it is written neatly.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 刂 (knife) component

制zhì刚gāng刻kè列liè创chuàng判pàn副fù剧jù刺cì剑jiàn

Related Characters

到dào前qián分fēn别bié刚gāng划huá制zhì刊kān列liè刺cì

Homophones — Characters pronounced lá

腊là

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 剌 (lá) mean in Chinese?
剌 (lá) primarily means "perverse." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3632 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 剌 and 速?
剌 (lá) and 速 (sù) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 刂 vs 辶 (same 束 component).
How many strokes does 剌 have?
剌 is written with 9 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 剌?
The radical associated with 剌 is 刂 (knife). This radical appears in many characters related to knife.
What are the components of 剌?
剌 is composed of: 束 (phonetic), 刂 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰束刂 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 剌?
Common words with 剌 include: 满剌加 (mǎn là jiā, "Ming Dynasty name for modern day Malacca"); 扎马剌丁 (zā mǎ lá dīng, "Jamal al-Din ibn Muhammad al-Najjari (13th century), famous Persian astronomer and scholar who served Khubilai Khan 忽..."); 札马剌丁 (zhá mǎ lá dīng, "see 紮馬剌丁|扎马剌丁"); 大剌剌 (dà là là, "pompous"); 瓦剌 (wǎ là, "Oirat Mongols (alliance of tribes of Western Mongolia) (Ming Dynasty term)"). There are over 6 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 剌 (lá)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lá: 腊 ((bound form) 12th lunar month). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 剌 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 剌 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 剌 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

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Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.