勒 (lè): (literary) bridle, halter, headstall, to rein in, to compel, to force

勒 (lè) is a Chinese character meaning “(literary) bridle.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 革 (phonetic) and 力 (semantic). It ranks #966 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 勒 strength. Its radical form 力 (power) appears in many related characters such as 动 (dòng, (of sth) to move), 力 (lì, power), 办 (bàn, to take care of (a matter)).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (literary) bridle
  2. halter
  3. headstall
  4. to rein in
  5. to compel
  6. to force

Etymology & Origin

勒

pictophoneticstrength

Decomposition: ⿰革力 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
希特勒proper-nounxī tè lèAdolf Hitler (1889-1945)
泰勒proper-nountài lèTaylor (name)
勒索verblè suǒto blackmail
加勒比jiā lè bǐCaribbean
俄勒冈州é lè gāng zhōuOregon
俄勒冈proper-nouné lè gāngOregon
巴勒斯坦proper-nounbā lè sī tǎnPalestine
那不勒斯proper-nounnà bù lè sīNapoli, capital of Campania region of Italy
拿撒勒proper-nounná sǎ lèNazareth (in Biblical Palestine)
敲诈勒索phraseqiāo zhà lè suǒextortion and blackmail (idiom)
洛克菲勒proper-nounluò kè fēi lèRockefeller
勒令verblè lìngto order
布加勒斯特bù jiā lè sī tèBucharest, capital of Romania
克莱斯勒kè lái sī lèChrysler (car manufacturer)
斯大林格勒sī dà lín gé lèStalingrad, former name of Volvograd 伏爾加格勒|伏尔加格勒 (1925-1961)
100
Total compounds
21
As first character
35
As last character
44
As middle character

勒 appears in 100 compound words: 21 as the first character, 35 as the last, and 44 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 勒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

憋biē
0.81740 co-occurrences
凸tū
0.74945 co-occurrences
肚dù
0.72545 co-occurrences
腹fù
0.64345 co-occurrences
尿niào
0.63343 co-occurrences
腿tuǐ
0.57537 co-occurrences
卜bǔ
0.5519,126 co-occurrences
泰tài
0.54328,848 co-occurrences
坦tǎn
0.53021,100 co-occurrences
希xī
0.49023,612 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (20)

贝尔格勒Bèi'ěrgélèHSK 7+

Belgrade (the capital city of Serbia)

贝克勒尔bèikèlè'ěrHSK 7+

becquerel (unit of radioactivity)

彼得格勒BǐdégélèHSK 7+

Petrograd

霍林郭勒HuòlínguōlèHSK 7+

Holingol (a county-level city of Tongliao, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, China)

加勒比海Jiālèbǐ HǎiHSK 7+

Caribbean Sea (a sea)

克莱斯勒kè lái sī lè

Chrysler (car manufacturer)

phrase
勒紧裤带lēijǐn kùdàiHSK 7+

to tighten one's belt; to tighten the purse strings; to be more frugal

verb
列宁格勒LiènínggélèHSK 7+

Leningrad; Leningrad (an oblast of Russia, surrounding the city of Saint Petersburg)

洛克菲勒Luòkèfēilè

a transliteration of the English surname Rockefeller

弥勒菩萨Mílè PúsàHSK 7+

Maitreya bodhisattva

敲诈勒索qiāozhàlèsuǒHSK 7+

to blackmail and impose exactions on; to extort and racketeer

phrase
萨格勒布SàgélèbùHSK 7+

Zagreb (the capital city of Croatia)

Showing 12 of 20 idioms containing 勒.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好勒字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

xiě hǎo lè zì xū yāo zhǎng wò zhēng què de bǐ huà shùn xù .

To write the character "勒" correctly, you need to master the proper stroke order.

99 健康网Feb 2026

男性性功能检查是怎么检查的?阴茎血流多普勒超声疼吗

nán xìng xìng gōng néng jiǎn chá shì zěn má jiǎn chá de ? yīn jīng xiě liú duō pǔ lè chāo shēng téng ma

How is the male sexual function test checked? Does penile blood flow Doppler ultrasound hurt?

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

法国凡尔赛宫主席勒里博出任卢浮宫博物馆馆长

fǎ guó fán ěr sài gōng zhǔ xí lè lǐ bó chū rèn 卢 fú gōng bó wù guǎn guǎn cháng

Leribault, chairman of the Palace of Versailles in France, became the director of the Louvre Museum

LtnFeb 2026

独家》网恋台湾女视讯录“性影像”勒索 中国男疑设断点逃追查

dú jiā wǎng liàn tái wān nǚ shì xùn lù xìng yǐng xiàng lè suǒ zhōng guó nán yí shè duàn diǎn táo zhuī chá

Exclusive" online love Taiwanese female video recording "sexual image" blackmail Chinese man suspected of setting up a breakpoint to escape investigation

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

联储局沃勒指当局须谨慎部署采用AI技术

lián chǔ jú wò lè zhǐ dāng jú xū jǐn shèn bù shǔ cǎi yòng A I jì shù

Federal Reserve Waller said that authorities must be cautious in deploying AI technology

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Feb 2026

3月会降息吗?Fed理事华勒:像掷硬币

3 yuè huì jiàng xī ma ? F e d lǐ shì huá lè : xiàng zhì yìng bì

Will there be a rate cut in March? Fed Governor Waller: It's like flipping a coin

Tatoeba

海伦凯勒眼盲,耳聋,又哑。

Hǎilún kǎi lè yǎn máng, ěrlóng, yòu yā.

Helen Keller was blind, deaf and dumb.

Tatoeba

海伦·凯勒眼盲、耳聋并且不能说话。

Hǎilún · kǎi lè yǎn máng, ěrlóng bìngqiě bù néng shuōhuà.

Helen Keller was blind, deaf and mute.

Tatoeba

耶路撒冷是巴勒斯坦的首都。

Yēlùsālěng shì Bālèsītǎn de shǒudū.

Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine.

Tatoeba

加里宁格勒旧称为哥尼斯堡。

Jiālǐnínggélè jiùchēng wèi Gēnísībǎo.

Kaliningrad was once called Koenigsberg.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 力 (strength) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced lè

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 勒 (lè) mean in Chinese?
勒 (lè) primarily means "(literary) bridle." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #966 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 勒 have?
勒 is written with 11 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 勒?
The radical associated with 勒 is 力 (power). This radical appears in many characters related to power.
What are the components of 勒?
勒 is composed of: 革 (phonetic), 力 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰革力 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 勒?
Common words with 勒 include: 希特勒 (xī tè lè, "Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)"); 泰勒 (tài lè, "Taylor (name)"); 勒索 (lè suǒ, "to blackmail"); 加勒比 (jiā lè bǐ, "Caribbean"); 俄勒冈州 (é lè gāng zhōu, "Oregon"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 勒 (lè)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lè: 了 ((completed action marker)), 乐 (happy). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 勒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 勒 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 勒 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.