莱 (lái): name of weed plant (fat hen, goosefoot, pigweed etc), Chenopodium album

莱 (lái) is a Chinese character meaning “name of weed plant (fat hen, goosefoot, pigweed etc).” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (semantic) and 来 (phonetic). It ranks #622 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 莱 grass. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 蒸 (zhēng, to steam), 草 (cǎo, grass), 花 (huā, flower).

Spoken pronunciation

Radical: 艹 grass10 strokesFrequency #622艹 semantic 来 phonetic

Definitions

name of weed plant (fat hen, goosefoot, pigweed etc)
Chenopodium album

Etymology & Origin

莱

pictophoneticgrass

Decomposition: ⿱艹来 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:艹semantic 来phonetic

Stroke Order

Practice writing 莱 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
好莱坞proper-noun	hǎo lái wù	Hollywood
克莱尔proper-noun	kè lái ěr	Claire (name)
布莱恩proper-noun	bù lái ēn	Brian (name)
克莱	kè lái	Clay (name)
克莱顿	kè lái dùn	(name) Clayton or Crichton
莱斯特proper-noun	lái sī tè	Lester or Leicester (name)
莱恩	lái ēn	(name) Ryan
布莱尔	bù lái ěr	Blair (name)
劳斯莱斯proper-noun	láo sī lái sī	Rolls-Royce
贝尔格莱德proper-noun	bèi ěr gé lái dé	Belgrade, capital of Serbia
克莱斯勒	kè lái sī lè	Chrysler (car manufacturer)
布莱顿	bù lái dùn	Brighton, town in England
莱西proper-noun	lái xī	see 萊西市\|莱西市
莱特proper-noun	lái tè	(surname) Wright
莱姆noun	lái mǔ	(loanword) lime

100

Total compounds

As first character

As last character

As middle character

莱 appears in 100 compound words: 41 as the first character, 14 as the last, and 45 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 莱 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

汶wèn

0.72920 co-occurrences

萨sà

0.46623 co-occurrences

恩ēn

0.43013 co-occurrences

拉lā

0.38035 co-occurrences

米mǐ

0.37228 co-occurrences

苏sū

0.32911 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (9)

葛莱美奖gé lái měi jiǎng

(Tw) Grammy Award (US music industry award)

phrase

克莱斯勒kè lái sī lè

Chrysler (car manufacturer)

phrase

莱昂纳多Lái'ángnàduō

a transliteration of the Spanish or Portuguese male given name Leonardo

莱布尼茨Láibùnící

a transliteration of the German surname Leibniz

莱布尼兹Láibùnízī

a transliteration of the German surname Leibniz

劳斯莱斯Láosīláisī

Rolls-Royce (car or aero engine manufacturer brand)

莫拉莱斯Mòlāláisī

a transliteration of the Spanish surname Morales

蓬莱仙境péng lái xiān jìng

Penglai, island of immortals; fairyland

phrase

Showing 8 of 9 idioms containing 莱.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们莱字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men lái zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "莱."

StheadlineFeb 2026

NBA|当积狂轰41分“白做” 太阳奇兵莱斯奥尼尔绝杀3分退湖人

N B A dāng jī kuáng hōng 4 1 fēn bái zuò tài yáng qí bīng lái sī ào ní ěr jué shā 3 fēn tuì hú rén

NBA | As D'Angelo Russell Scores 41 Points in Vain, Suns' X-Factor LaMelo Ball Hits Game-Winning 3-Pointer to Defeat the Lakers

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

联储局穆萨莱姆:目前货币政策适当地平衡风险

lián chǔ jú mù sà lái mǔ : mù qián huò bì zhèng cè shì dāng dì píng héng fēng xiǎn

Fed's Musalem: Current monetary policy strikes an appropriate balance between risks

東方日報Feb 2026

【有胆齐莱】凯旋升形势绝佳

yǒu dǎn qí lái kǎi xuán shēng xíng shì jué jiā

[Youdan Qile] Triumph is in an excellent position

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

巴克莱认为万科(02202)正努力避免彻底违约...

bā kè lái rèn wéi wàn kē ( 0 2 2 0 2 ) zhèng nǔ lì bì miǎn chè de wéi yuē . . .

Barclays believes Vanke (02202) is working to avoid a full-scale default...

StheadlineFeb 2026

英超|尼高奥莱利生涯首次梅开二度哥迪奥拿喜见青训成果

yīng chāo ní gāo ào lái lì shēng yá shǒu cì méi kāi èr dù gē dí ào ná xǐ jiàn qīng xùn chéng guǒ

Premier League | Niko O'Reilly Scores First Career Brace; Guardiola Delighted to See Academy Product Shine

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 艹 (grass) component

英yīng 落luò 苦kǔ 药yào 苏sū 范fàn 藏zàng 草cǎo 艺yì 著zhù

Related Characters

蒸zhēng 草cǎo 花huā 茶chá 菜cài 药yào 苦kǔ 落luò 蓝lán 节jié

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 莱 (lái) mean in Chinese?

莱 (lái) primarily means "name of weed plant (fat hen, goosefoot, pigweed etc)." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #622 in character frequency.

How many strokes does 莱 have?

莱 is written with 10 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 莱?

The radical associated with 莱 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.

What are the components of 莱?

莱 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 来 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹来 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.

What are common words containing 莱?

Common words with 莱 include: 好莱坞 (hǎo lái wù, "Hollywood"); 克莱尔 (kè lái ěr, "Claire (name)"); 布莱恩 (bù lái ēn, "Brian (name)"); 克莱 (kè lái, "Clay (name)"); 克莱顿 (kè lái dùn, "(name) Clayton or Crichton"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.

Is 莱 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?

No. The simplified form is 莱 and the traditional form is 萊.

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