唠 (lào): to gossip, to chat (dialect)
唠 (lào) is a Chinese character meaning “to gossip.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 劳 (phonetic). It ranks #2904 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 唠 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).
Definitions
- to gossip
- to chat (dialect)
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 唠 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 唠叨verb | láo dao | to prattle |
| 叨唠verb | dāo lao | to be chattersome |
| 唠嗑verb | lào kē | (dialect) to chat |
| 唠唠叨叨 | láo lao dāo dāo | to chatter |
唠 appears in 4 compound words: 75 as the first character, 25 as the last, and 0 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 唠 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (1)
Example Sentences
他唠干舌燥地讲了两个小时，终于说服了大家。
tā láo gān jī zào dì jiǎng le liǎng gě xiǎo shí , zhōng yú shuō fú le dà jiā .
He talked until he was hoarse for two hours, finally convincing everyone.
沙僧话少、老实，却也有自己的“小心思”——表面和师父一条心，背地里也会嫌师父唠叨。
shā sēng huà shǎo , lǎo shí , què yě yǒu zì jǐ de xiǎo xīn sī — — biǎo miàn hé shī fù yī tiáo xīn , bèi dì lǐ yě huì xián shī fù lào dāo .
Sha Wujing is quiet and honest, but he has his own “little thoughts”—on the surface, he’s in complete agreement with his master, but behind his back, he sometimes finds his master’s constant nagging annoying.
趁着还闲着，我决定把这些东西拿出来跟大家唠一唠。
chèn zhe hái xián zhe , wǒ jué dìng bǎ zhè xiē dōng xī ná chū lái gēn dà jiā lào yī lào .
Since I have some free time, I decided to dig these things out and share them with everyone.
直到有一天，他疲惫地坐在车里，司机跟他唠嗑，聊到了吃饭。
zhí dào yǒu yī tiān , tā pí bèi dì zuò zài chē lǐ , sī jī gēn tā lào 嗑 , liáo dào le chī fàn .
Until one day, as he sat exhausted in the car, the driver struck up a conversation with him, and they ended up talking about dinner.
他身为一个中学生，每天因为看手机时间过长被家长唠叨。
tā shēn wéi yī gè zhōng xué shēng , měi tiān yīn wéi kàn shǒu jī shí jiān guò cháng bèi jiā cháng lào dāo .
As a middle school student, he gets nagged by his parents every day for spending too much time on his phone.
别唠叨！我需要学习。
Bié láodao! wǒ xūyào xuéxí.
Don't chatter! I have to study.
我并不想唠叨你。
Wǒ bìngbù xiǎng láodao nǐ.
I don't mean to nag you.
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 唠 (lào) mean in Chinese?
How many strokes does 唠 have?
What is the radical of 唠?
What are the components of 唠?
What are common words containing 唠?
What characters sound the same as 唠 (lào)?
Is 唠 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 唠 with real-time feedback
Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.