潦 (lǎo): flooded, heavy rain, used in 潦草

潦 (lǎo) 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 尞 (phonetic). It ranks #2960 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

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

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 氵 water15 strokesFrequency #2960氵 semantic尞 phonetic

Definitions

  1. flooded
  2. heavy rain
  3. used in 潦草

Etymology & Origin

潦

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵尞 (layout: left-right)

Components:氵semantic尞phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
潦倒liáo dǎodown on one's luck
潦草liáo cǎoslipshod
穷困潦倒qióng kùn liáo dǎo(idiom) to live in poverty and despair
贫穷潦倒pín qióng liáo dǎodestitute
穷愁潦倒qióng chóu liáo dǎoimpoverished and dejected
5
Total compounds
40
As first character
0
As last character
60
As middle character

潦 appears in 5 compound words: 40 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 60 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 潦 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

倒dǎo
0.6113,297 co-occurrences
穷qióng
0.587654 co-occurrences
困kùn
0.5551,578 co-occurrences
贫pín
0.455186 co-occurrences
草cǎo
0.443786 co-occurrences
旱hàn
0.441138 co-occurrences
愁chóu
0.41454 co-occurrences
魄pò
0.40542 co-occurrences
泄xiè
0.35736 co-occurrences
溪xī
0.343144 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

穷愁潦倒qióng chóu liáo dǎoHSK 7+

impoverished and dejected; wretched and penniless

phrase

Showing 1 of 2 idioms containing 潦.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

清晨的潦面波光粼粼，倒映着岸边的柳树。

qīng chén de lǎo miàn bō guāng 粼 粼 , dǎo yìng zhe àn biān de liǔ shù .

The early morning water surface shimmered with ripples, reflecting the willow trees along the shore.

Tatoeba

他年轻的时候穷困潦倒。

Tā niánqīng de shíhou qióngkùn liǎodǎo.

He was terribly poor when he was young.

Tatoeba

谢谢你在我贫困潦倒之时借给我$500。

Xièxie nǐ zài wǒ pínkùn liáodǎo zhī shí jiègěi wǒ $500.

Thank you very much for lending me $500 when I was having difficulty making ends meet.

Character Family

氵 Radical Family — Characters sharing the water radical

澳ào滨bīn濒bīn波bō沧cāng测cè潮cháo澈chè澄chéng池chí

Related Characters

水shuǐ汉hàn汽qì没méi洗xǐ渴kě永yǒng求qiú河hé油yóu

Homophones — Characters pronounced lǎo

捞lāo劳láo牢láo唠lào老lǎo姥lǎo涝lào络lào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 潦 (lǎo) mean in Chinese?
潦 (lǎo) primarily means "flooded." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2960 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 潦 and 灯?
潦 (lǎo) and 灯 (dēng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 潦 (heavy) vs 灯 (light).
How many strokes does 潦 have?
潦 is written with 15 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 潦?
The radical associated with 潦 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 潦?
潦 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 尞 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵尞 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 潦?
Common words with 潦 include: 潦倒 (liáo dǎo, "down on one's luck"); 潦草 (liáo cǎo, "slipshod"); 穷困潦倒 (qióng kùn liáo dǎo, "(idiom) to live in poverty and despair"); 贫穷潦倒 (pín qióng liáo dǎo, "destitute"); 穷愁潦倒 (qióng chóu liáo dǎo, "impoverished and dejected"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 潦 (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 潦 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 潦 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 潦 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

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.