拉 (lā): to pull
拉 (lā) is a Chinese character meaning “to pull.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 立 (phonetic). It ranks #324 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 拉 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).
Definitions
- to pull
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 拉 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 伊拉克proper-noun | yī lā kè | Iraq |
| 莎拉proper-noun | shā lā | Sara or Sarah (name) |
| 沙拉adjective | shā lā | (loanword) salad |
| 卡拉 | kǎ lā | karaoke |
| 拉拉noun | lā lā | (slang) lesbian |
| 拉丁proper-noun | lā dīng | Latin |
| 阿拉伯proper-noun | ā lā bó | Arabian |
| 阿拉pronoun | ā lā | (Wu dialect) I |
| 达拉斯proper-noun | dá lā sī | Dallas |
| 拉开verb | lā kāi | to pull open |
| 拉里 | lā lǐ | lari (currency of Georgia) (loanword) |
| 克拉noun | kè lā | carat (mass) (loanword) |
| 布拉格proper-noun | bù lā gé | Prague, capital of Czech Republic |
| 克拉克 | kè lā kè | (name) Clark or Clarke |
| 阿拉斯加 | ā lā sī jiā | Alaska, US state |
拉 appears in 139 compound words: 53 as the first character, 32 as the last, and 15 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 拉 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (50)
a transliteration of the Arabic male given name عَبْد اللّٰه (ʕabd allāh), Abd Allah
a transliteration of the Arabic male given name عَبْد اللّٰه (ʕabd allāh), Abd Allah
Showing 12 of 50 idioms containing 拉.
Example Sentences
请拉一下这个把手，抽屉就能打开了。
Qǐng lā yíxià zhè gè bǎshou, chōuti jiù néng dǎkāi le.
Please pull this handle, and the drawer will open.
88%的阿拉伯民众反对承认以色列政权
8 8 de ā lā bó mín zhòng fǎn duì chéng rèn yǐ sè liè zhèng quán
88% of the Arab population opposes the recognition of the Israeli regime
未必是坏事!南马降级成精英标 马拉松将回归体验本质
wèi bì shì huài shì ! nán mǎ jiàng jí chéng jīng yīng biāo mǎ lā sōng jiāng huí guī tǐ yàn běn zhì
It's not necessarily a bad thing! South Malaysia is relegated to an elite marathon and will return to the essence of experience
莎拉·杜特尔特宣布参加2028年菲律宾总统大...
莎 lā dù tè ěr tè xuān bù cān jiā nián 菲 lǜ bīn zǒng tǒng dà . . .
Sara Duterte announces her candidacy for the 2028 Philippine presidential election...
新春走基层|拉萨:年货购销两旺 高原喜迎新年
xīn chūn zǒu jī céng lā sà nián huò gòu xiāo liǎng wàng gāo yuán xǐ yíng xīn nián
Spring Festival at the Grassroots Level | Lhasa: New Year Shopping Booms as Plateau Welcomes the New Year
原油价格大幅反弹 直线拉升
yuán yóu jiè gé dà fú fǎn dàn zhí xiàn lā shēng
Crude oil prices surge sharply, climbing steeply.
您听见我儿子拉小提琴了吗？
Nín tīngjiàn wǒ érzi lā xiǎotíqín le ma?
Did you hear my son play the violin?
要不要再来一些沙拉？
Yàobù yào zài lái yīxiē shālā?
Would you like some more salad?
您曾经见过考拉吗？
Nín céngjīng jiàn guo kǎolā ma?
Have you ever seen a koala?
芭芭拉昨天考驾照考得怎样？
Bābālā zuótiān kǎo jiàzhào kǎo de zěnyàng?
How did Barbara's driving test go yesterday?
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 拉 (lā) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 拉 and 推?
How many strokes does 拉 have?
What is the radical of 拉?
What are the components of 拉?
What are common words containing 拉?
What characters sound the same as 拉 (lā)?
Is 拉 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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