(): (onom.) sound of wind, rain etc, (phonetic)

() is a Chinese character meaning “(onom.) sound of wind, rain etc.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2547 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, mouth. Its radical form (mouth) appears in many related characters such as (kǒu, mouth), (jiào, to call, to be called), (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (onom.) sound of wind, rain etc
  2. (phonetic)

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口剌 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
lǎ bahorn (automobile etc)
dá lài lǎ maDalai Lama
lǎ malama, spiritual teacher in Tibetan Buddhism
lǎ ba kùflared trousers
hā lá zi(dialect) saliva
lǎ ba huāmorning glory
kā lǎ qìn zuǒ yì měng gǔ zú zì zhì xiànHarqin Left Mongol autonomous county in Chaoyang 朝陽|朝阳[Chao2 yang2], Liaoning
lǎ ma jiàoLamaism
lǎ hé(Protestantism) Rahab, mother of Boaz
gāo yīn lǎ batweeter
huī bù lǎ jīdull gray
kā lǎ kūn lún gōng lùKarakorum Highway, linking Pakistan and Xinjiang
dī yīn lǎ bawoofer
hā larancid
lā bā shuǐ xiāndaffodil
31
Total compounds
42
As first character
10
As last character
48
As middle character

appears in 31 compound words: 42 as the first character, 10 as the last, and 48 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

ma
0.89034,560 co-occurrences
0.83415,387 co-occurrences
lài
0.5675,430 co-occurrences
hàn
0.4682,394 co-occurrences
0.4396,852 co-occurrences
miào
0.4311,626 co-occurrences
0.422216 co-occurrences
shì
0.4134,470 co-occurrences
shā
0.4134,410 co-occurrences
chán
0.406438 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

bānchán lǎmaHSK 7+

Panchen Lama

noun
huī bù lǎ jīHSK 7+

dull gray; gray and loathsome

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

妈妈嘱我要按时吃饭,注意身体健康。

mā mā lā zhǔ wǒ yāo àn shí chī fàn , zhù yì shēn tī jiàn kāng .

Mom reminded me to eat on time and take care of my health.

StheadlineApr 2026

Denon Home系列无线叭3连发!全线升级Dolby Atmos...

D e n o n H o m e xì liè wú xiàn lā bā 3 lián fā ! quán xiàn shēng jí D o l b y A t m o s . . .

Am730Apr 2026

...米4月电脑新品Wi‐Fi 7路由器+桌面叭 加速网络提升音质必买!

. . . mǐ 4 yuè diàn nǎo xīn pǐn W i F i 7 lù yóu qì zhuō miàn lā bā jiā sù wǎng lào tí shēng yīn zhì bì mǎi !

Hk01.comApr 2026

小一面试|沙小学历年面试叩门题目附学术题目必知沙...

xiǎo yī miàn shì lā shā xiǎo xué lì nián miàn shì 叩 mén tí mù fù xué shù tí mù bì zhī lā shā . . .

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

四川天全叭河景区:游客乘坐观光车喜遇野生大熊猫

sì chuān tiān quán lā bā hé jǐng qū : yóu kè chéng zuò guàn guāng chē xǐ yù yě shēng dà xióng māo

Sichuan Tianquan Horn River Scenic Area: Tourists take a sightseeing bus to meet wild giant pandas

Tatoeba

火车在快到交叉路口的时候减速、按叭。

Huǒchē zài kuài dào jiāochā lùkǒu de shíhou jiǎnsù, àn lǎba.

The train slowed and blared its horn as it approached the railway crossing.

Tatoeba

仲有五日就放暑假

Zhòng yǒu wǔ rì jiù fàng shǔjià lā.

We have five days to go before the summer vacation.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 喇 (lā) mean in Chinese?
喇 (lā) primarily means "(onom.) sound of wind, rain etc." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2547 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 喇 and 赖?
喇 (lā) and 赖 (lài) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 口 vs 贝 (same 剌 component).
How many strokes does 喇 have?
喇 is written with 12 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 喇?
The radical associated with 喇 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 喇?
喇 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 剌 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口剌 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 喇?
Common words with 喇 include: 喇叭 (lǎ ba, "horn (automobile etc)"); 达赖喇嘛 (dá lài lǎ ma, "Dalai Lama"); 喇嘛 (lǎ ma, "lama, spiritual teacher in Tibetan Buddhism"); 喇叭裤 (lǎ ba kù, "flared trousers"); 哈喇子 (hā lá zi, "(dialect) saliva"). There are over 31 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 喇 (lā)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lā: 垃 (garbage), 拉 (to pull), 蜡 (wax), 辣 (hot (spicy)), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 喇 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 喇 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

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

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.