涝 (lào): flooded

涝 (lào) is a Chinese character meaning “flooded.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 劳 (phonetic). It ranks #2987 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 涝 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. flooded

Etymology & Origin

涝

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵劳 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
洪涝nounhóng làoflood
旱涝保收hàn lào bǎo shōuto provide a stable crop, regardless of drought or flood
内涝nounnèi làowaterlogged
排涝verbpái làoto drain flooded fields
抗涝kàng làodefenses against floods
5
Total compounds
0
As first character
80
As last character
20
As middle character

涝 appears in 5 compound words: 0 as the first character, 80 as the last, and 20 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 涝 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

旱hàn
0.616355 co-occurrences
洪hóng
0.6061,588 co-occurrences
灾zāi
0.569769 co-occurrences
害hài
0.490660 co-occurrences
雹báo
0.46918 co-occurrences
泥ní
0.464218 co-occurrences
坝bà
0.43380 co-occurrences
溉gài
0.42232 co-occurrences
次cì
0.401932 co-occurrences
严yán
0.397128 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

旱涝保收hàn lào bǎo shōuHSK 7+

to provide a stable crop, regardless of drought or flood; to bring a stable income

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

涝灾过后,重建家园。

Lào zāi guòhòu, chóngjiàn jiāyuán.

Rebuild homes after flood disasters.

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

积水浸泡、水源污染……洪涝灾害后如何保护健康?

jī shuǐ jìn pāo , shuǐ yuán wū rǎn hóng lào zāi hài hòu rú hé bǎo hù jiàn kāng ?

Standing Water, Contaminated Water Sources… How to Protect Your Health After a Flood?

少数派Jul 2026

本文内容均按以下原则执行: 一个物理硬盘一个盘符,能不分区就不分区,避免旱死涝死。

běn wén nèi róng jūn àn yǐ xià yuán zé zhí háng : yī gè wù lǐ yìng pán yī gè pán fú , néng bù fēn qū jiù bù fēn qū , bì miǎn hàn sǐ lào sǐ .

The content of this article adheres to the following principles: One physical hard drive per drive letter; avoid partitioning whenever possible to prevent both extremes.

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

千百年来,民间流传着“大暑热不够,大热在秋后”“大暑防旱涝,秋收少不了”等谚语。

qiān bǎi nián lái , mín jiān liú chuán zhe dà shǔ rè bù gòu , dà rè zài qiū hòu dà shǔ fáng hàn lào , qiū shōu shǎo bù le děng yàn yǔ .

For centuries, proverbs such as “If it isn’t hot enough during the Greater Heat, the real heat will come after autumn” and “If you guard against drought and flooding during the Greater Heat, you’re sure to have a good autumn harvest” have been passed down among the people.

少数派Jul 2026

暴雨和洪涝的季节,这些技巧助你从容自保

bào yǔ hé hóng lào de jì jié , zhè xiē jì qiǎo zhù nǐ cóng róng zì bǎo

During the season of heavy rains and flooding, these tips will help you stay safe and keep your composure

IT之家Jul 2026

广西多地发生严重暴雨洪涝灾害,沃尔玛中国捐赠 100 万元物资驰援

guǎng xī duō dì fā shēng yán chóng bào yǔ hóng lào zāi hài , wò ěr mǎ zhōng guó juān zèng 1 0 0 wàn yuán wù zī chí yuán

Severe rainstorms and flooding have struck multiple areas in Guangxi; Walmart China has donated 1 million yuan worth of supplies to provide emergency relief.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced lào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 涝 (lào) mean in Chinese?
涝 (lào) primarily means "flooded." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2987 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 涝 have?
涝 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 涝?
The radical associated with 涝 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 涝?
涝 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 劳 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵劳 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 涝?
Common words with 涝 include: 洪涝 (hóng lào, "flood"); 旱涝保收 (hàn lào bǎo shōu, "to provide a stable crop, regardless of drought or flood"); 内涝 (nèi lào, "waterlogged"); 排涝 (pái lào, "to drain flooded fields"); 抗涝 (kàng lào, "defenses against floods"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 涝 (lào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lào: 捞 (to fish up), 唠 (to gossip), 老 (old (of people)), 劳 ((bound form) to toil), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 涝 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 涝 and the traditional form is 澇.

Practice writing 涝 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.