酪 (lào): cheese, dairy product, fruit jelly

酪 (lào) is a Chinese character meaning “cheese.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 酉 (semantic) and 各 (phonetic). It ranks #3128 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 酪 wine. Its radical form 酉 (wine) appears in many related characters such as 酗 (xù, drunk), 酝 (yùn, to brew), 配 (pèi, to join).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 酉 wine13 strokesFrequency #3128酉 semantic各 phonetic

Definitions

  1. cheese
  2. dairy product
  3. fruit jelly

Etymology & Origin

酪

pictophoneticwine

Decomposition: ⿰酉各 (layout: left-right)

Components:酉semantic各phonetic

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
奶酪nǎi làocheese
干酪gān làocheese
乳酪rǔ làocheese
巴马干酪bā mǎ gān làoParmesan cheese
酪氨酸代谢病lào ān suān dài xiè bìng(medicine) tyrosinosis
酪农业lào nóng yè(Tw) dairy industry
干酪素gān lào sùcasein
酪蛋白lào dàn báicasein (milk protein)
乡村奶酪xiāng cūn nǎi làocottage cheese
奶酪火锅nǎi lào huǒ guōfondue
蓝纹奶酪lán wén nǎi làoblue cheese
酪农lào nóng(Tw) dairy farmer
酪素lào sùcasein (milk protein)
优酪乳yōu luò rǔyogurt (loanword) (Tw)
乳酪蛋糕rǔ lào dàn gāocheesecake
25
Total compounds
44
As first character
36
As last character
20
As middle character

酪 appears in 25 compound words: 44 as the first character, 36 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 酪 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

奶nǎi
0.71611,372 co-occurrences
乳rǔ
0.6144,712 co-occurrences
酸suān
0.5494,098 co-occurrences
酥sū
0.497252 co-occurrences
梨lí
0.4891,014 co-occurrences
蛋dàn
0.4591,272 co-occurrences
酱jiàng
0.439156 co-occurrences
糕gāo
0.428330 co-occurrences
激jī
0.4201,098 co-occurrences
阱jǐng
0.410144 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

酪字由13笔画组成，结构很巧妙。

lào zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "酪" consists of 13 strokes and has a very ingenious structure.

Character Family

酉 Radical Family — Characters sharing the wine radical

酬chóu酣hān酱jiàng酵jiào酷kù酿niàng配pèi醒xǐng酝yùn酌zhuó

Related Characters

酗xù酝yùn配pèi酸suān醒xǐng醉zuì醋cù酱jiàng酷kù酬chóu

Homophones — Characters pronounced lào

络lào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 酪 (lào) mean in Chinese?
酪 (lào) primarily means "cheese." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3128 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 酪 and 格?
酪 (lào) and 格 (gé) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 酉 vs 木 (same 各 component).
How many strokes does 酪 have?
酪 is written with 13 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 酪?
The radical associated with 酪 is 酉 (wine). This radical appears in many characters related to wine.
What are the components of 酪?
酪 is composed of: 酉 (semantic), 各 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰酉各 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 酪?
Common words with 酪 include: 奶酪 (nǎi lào, "cheese"); 干酪 (gān lào, "cheese"); 乳酪 (rǔ lào, "cheese"); 巴马干酪 (bā mǎ gān lào, "Parmesan cheese"); 酪氨酸代谢病 (lào ān suān dài xiè bìng, "(medicine) tyrosinosis"). There are over 25 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 酪 (lào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lào: 络 (small net). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 酪 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 酪 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.