姥 (lǎo): grandma (maternal), governess, old woman

姥 (lǎo) is a Chinese character meaning “grandma (maternal).” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 女 (structural) and 老 (structural). It ranks #2679 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 姥 an older 老 woman 女; 老 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 女 (woman) appears in many related characters such as 女 (nǚ, woman), 奶 (nǎi, grandmother, milk), 她 (tā, she).

Native pronunciation
HSK 5Radical: 女 woman9 strokesFrequency #2679女 structural老 structural

Definitions

  1. grandma (maternal)
  2. governess
  3. old woman

Etymology & Origin

姥

ideographicAn older 老 woman 女; 老 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰女老 (layout: left-right)

Components:女structural老structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 姥

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
姥姥nounlǎo lao(coll.) mother's mother5
姥爷nounlǎo yematernal grandfather (dialectal)5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
刘姥姥进大观园liú lǎo lao jìn dà guān yuánGranny Liu visits the Grand View gardens
老姥lǎo mǔold lady
姥娘lǎo niángmaternal grandmother (dialectal)
姑姥姥gū lǎo laomother's father's sister (coll.)
姨姥姥yí lǎo laomother's mother's sister
姥鲨lǎo shābasking shark (Cetorhinus maximus)
8
Total compounds
50
As first character
13
As last character
38
As middle character

姥 appears in 8 compound words: 50 as the first character, 13 as the last, and 38 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 姥 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

鲨shā
0.515300 co-occurrences
爷yé
0.510396 co-occurrences
斗dǒu
0.4631,296 co-occurrences
刘liú
0.424852 co-occurrences
童tóng
0.418912 co-occurrences
妖yāo
0.398270 co-occurrences
山shān
0.3732,286 co-occurrences
吟yín
0.37172 co-occurrences
鼎dǐng
0.365144 co-occurrences
萍píng
0.36484 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

古时候，姥子很少有机会接受教育。

gǔ shí hòu , lǎo zǐ hěn shǎo yǒu jī huì jiē shòu jiào yù .

In ancient times, grandmothers rarely had the opportunity to receive an education.

Tatoeba

我姥姥只喝了点儿汤。

Wǒ lǎolao zhǐ hē le diǎnr tāng.

My grandma just drank a bit of soup.

Character Family

女 Radical Family — Characters sharing the woman radical

好hǎo姐jiě妈mā妹mèi奶nǎi女nǚ如rú始shǐ她tā姓xìng

Related Characters

女nǚ奶nǎi她tā好hǎo妈mā妹mèi姐jiě如rú姓xìng始shǐ

Homophones — Characters pronounced lǎo

捞lāo劳láo牢láo唠lào老lǎo涝lào潦lǎo络lào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 姥 (lǎo) mean in Chinese?
姥 (lǎo) primarily means "grandma (maternal)." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2679 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 姥 have?
姥 is written with 9 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 姥?
The radical associated with 姥 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 姥?
姥 is composed of: 女 (structural), 老 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女老 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 姥?
Common words with 姥 include: 姥姥 (lǎo lao, "(coll.) mother's mother"); 姥爷 (lǎo ye, "maternal grandfather (dialectal)"); 刘姥姥进大观园 (liú lǎo lao jìn dà guān yuán, "Granny Liu visits the Grand View gardens"); 老姥 (lǎo mǔ, "old lady"); 姥娘 (lǎo niáng, "maternal grandmother (dialectal)"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 姥 (lǎo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lǎo: 捞 (to fish up), 劳 ((bound form) to toil), 牢 (firm), 唠 (to gossip), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 姥 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 姥 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.