腊 (là): (bound form) 12th lunar month, dried meat, cured meat

腊 (là) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) 12th lunar month.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of ⺼ (structural) and 昔 (structural). It ranks #1488 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 腊 a sacrifice of meat ⺼ for the past year 昔. Its radical form 肉 (meat) appears in many related characters such as 肉 (ròu, meat), 能 (néng, can), 背 (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) 12th lunar month
  2. dried meat
  3. cured meat

Etymology & Origin

腊

ideographicA sacrifice of meat ⺼ for the past year 昔

Decomposition: ⿰⺼昔 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
希腊proper-nounxī làGreece
腊肠nounlà chángsausage
腊肉nounlà ròumeat that has been cured and air-dried in the cold (esp. during the 12th lunar month)
腊月proper-nounlà yuètwelfth lunar month
苏门达腊proper-nounsū mén dá làvariant of 蘇門答臘|苏门答腊
希腊字母xī là zì mǔGreek alphabet
希腊文nounxī là wénGreek literature
苏门答腊proper-nounsū mén dá làSumatra, one of the Indonesian islands
古希腊语proper-noungǔ xī là yǔAncient Greek (language)
苏门答腊岛sū mén dá là dǎoSumatra (one of the Indonesian islands)
方腊fāng làFang La
希腊语nounxī là yǔGreek language
腊八节proper-nounlà bā jiéLaba rice porridge festival, on the 8th day of the 12th lunar month
古希腊proper-noungǔ xī làancient Greece
真腊proper-nounzhēn làKhmer kingdom of Kampuchea or Cambodia
25
Total compounds
32
As first character
32
As last character
36
As middle character

腊 appears in 25 compound words: 32 as the first character, 32 as the last, and 36 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 腊 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

希xī
0.72044,993 co-occurrences
古gǔ
0.4656,488 co-occurrences
语yǔ
0.4647,587 co-occurrences
答dá
0.4571,486 co-occurrences
肠cháng
0.426232 co-occurrences
话huà
0.3991,070 co-occurrences
苏sū
0.3901,544 co-occurrences
粥zhōu
0.37974 co-occurrences
门mén
0.3711,558 co-occurrences
笼lóng
0.370184 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

残冬腊月cán dōng là yuèHSK 7+

final days of the lunar year

phrase
古希腊语Gǔ XīlàyǔHSK 7+

Ancient Greek (language)

苏门达腊SūméndálàHSK 7+

Alternative name for 蘇門答臘/苏门答腊 (Sūméndálà, “Sumatra”).

苏门答腊SūméndálàHSK 7+

Sumatra (the largest island entirely in Indonesia and the world’s sixth largest island)

希腊字母xī là zì mǔHSK 7+

Greek alphabet

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

腊字的写法很特别,让我印象深刻。

xī zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The character "腊" has a very distinctive way of being written, which left a deep impression on me.

少数派Aug 2026

馆内穿梭长廊的两侧,放置着大量的古罗马雕塑、皇帝胸像、以及一些希腊雕塑的罗马复制品。

guǎn nèi chuān suō cháng láng de liǎng cè , fàng zhì zhe dà liàng de gǔ luó mǎ diāo sù , huáng dì xiōng xiàng , yǐ jí yī xiē xī xī diāo sù de luó mǎ fù zhì pǐn .

Along both sides of the gallery’s long corridor are numerous ancient Roman sculptures, busts of emperors, and Roman copies of some Greek sculptures.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

这像不像希腊神话故事里的西西弗斯,一直在推一块永远也推不上山顶的石头?

zhè xiàng bù xiàng xī xī shén huà gù shì lǐ de xī xī fú sī , yī zhí zài tuī yī kuài yǒng yuǎn yě tuī bù shàng shān dǐng de shí tóu ?

Doesn't this remind you of Sisyphus from Greek mythology, who was forever pushing a boulder that he could never get to the top of the mountain?

InvestingFeb 2026

希腊股市上涨;截至收盘Athens Gene...

xī xī gǔ shì shàng zhǎng ; jié zhì shōu pán A t h e n s G e n e . . .

Greece stocks higher at close of trade; Athens Gene...

百度新闻Feb 2026

希腊全国出租车司机举行罢工

xī xī quán guó chū zū chē sī jī jǔ háng bà gōng

Taxi drivers across Greece are on strike

Tatoeba

奥林匹斯山? 那不是希腊众神鬼混的地方?

ào lín pǐ sī shān? nà bù shì Xīlà zhòng shén guǐhùn de dìfang?

Olympus? Isn't that where Greek gods hang out or something?

Tatoeba

阿尔法、贝塔和咖玛是希腊文字。

ā'ěrfǎ, bèitǎ hé gāmǎ shì Xīlà wénzì.

Alpha, beta and gamma are Greek letters.

Tatoeba

汤姆喜欢希腊酸奶。

Tāngmǔ xǐhuan Xīlà suānnǎi.

Tom likes Greek yogurt.

Tatoeba

在希腊神话中,阿瑞斯是战争之神。

Zài Xīlà shénhuà zhōng, āruìsī shì zhànzhēng zhī shén.

In Greek mythology, Ares was the god of war.

Tatoeba

希腊人以前是信奉多神的民族。

Xīlàrén yǐqián shì xìnfèng duō shén de mínzú.

The Greeks used to worship several gods.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced là

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 腊 (là) mean in Chinese?
腊 (là) primarily means "(bound form) 12th lunar month." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1488 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 腊 have?
腊 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 腊?
The radical associated with 腊 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 腊?
腊 is composed of: ⺼ (structural), 昔 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰⺼昔 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 腊?
Common words with 腊 include: 希腊 (xī là, "Greece"); 腊肠 (là cháng, "sausage"); 腊肉 (là ròu, "meat that has been cured and air-dried in the cold (esp. during the 12th lunar month)"); 腊月 (là yuè, "twelfth lunar month"); 苏门达腊 (sū mén dá là, "variant of 蘇門答臘|苏门答腊"). There are over 25 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 腊 (là)?
Several characters share the pronunciation là: 拉 (to pull), 啦 (sentence-final particle, contraction of 了啊, indicating exclamation), 辣 (hot (spicy)), 垃 (garbage), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 腊 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 腊 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 腊 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.