类 (lèi): kind, type, class, category, (classifier) kind, type, (bound form) to resemble, to be similar to

类 (lèi) is a Chinese character meaning “kind.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 米 (structural) and 大 (structural). It ranks #311 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. kind
  2. type
  3. class
  4. category
  5. (classifier) kind
  6. type
  7. (bound form) to resemble
  8. to be similar to

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 类

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
人类nounrén lèihumanity5
类似verblèi sìsimilar5
类型nounlèi xíngtype5
分类verbfēn lèito classify5
同类adjective/nountóng lèisimilar6
种类nounzhǒng lèikind5
类别nounlèi biéclassification6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
之类nounzhī lèiand so on
诸如此类phrasezhū rú cǐ lèithings like this (idiom)
类固醇nounlèi gù chúnsteroid
败类nounbài lèiscum of a community
鸟类nounniǎo lèibirds
人类学nounrén lèi xuéanthropology
出类拔萃phrasechū lèi bá cuìto excel the common (idiom)
鱼类nounyú lèifishes
肉类nounròu lèimeat
异类adjectiveyì lèidifferent kind (sometimes with a connotation of strangeness or eccentricity)
各类pronoungè lèiall categories
类比verblèi bǐanalogy
此类nouncǐ lèithis kind
归类verbguī lèito classify
贝类nounbèi lèishellfish
102
Total compounds
20
As first character
75
As last character
6
As middle character

类 appears in 102 compound words: 20 as the first character, 75 as the last, and 6 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 类 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

似sì
0.60076,907 co-occurrences
型xíng
0.57688,036 co-occurrences
窃qiè
0.5253,414 co-occurrences
鸟niǎo
0.52015,261 co-occurrences
鱼yú
0.5059,990 co-occurrences
种zhǒng
0.49435,790 co-occurrences
各gè
0.47434,418 co-occurrences
别bié
0.46818,534 co-occurrences
盗dào
0.4673,656 co-occurrences
分fēn
0.46782,212 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (11)

不伦不类bùlúnbùlèiHSK 7+

nondescript; neither fish nor fowl

phrase
出类拔萃chūlèibácuì

to excel the common; surpassing; preeminent; outstanding

phrase
触类旁通chùlèipángtōngHSK 5+

comprehend by analogy

phrase
符类福音Fúlèi FúyīnHSK 5+

Synoptic Gospels

呼朋引类hū péng yǐn lèiHSK 5+

to call up all one's associates; rent-a-crowd

phrase
画虎类犬huàhǔlèiquǎnHSK 7+

short for 畫虎不成反類犬/画虎不成反类犬 (huà hǔ bùchéng fǎn lèi quǎn)

phrase
垃圾分类lā jī fēn lèiHSK 5+

waste sorting; waste separation

phrase
物以类聚wùyǐlèijùHSK 5+

Birds of a feather flock together.

proverb
以此类推yǐcǐlèituīHSK 5+

to deduce the rest by analogy; and so on; and so forth

phrase
诸如此类zhūrúcǐlèiHSK 6+

and so on and so forth

phrase

Showing 10 of 11 idioms containing 类.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习类字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

xué xí lèi zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Learning characters requires repeated practice to write them neatly.

99 健康网Feb 2026

男生小便后甩一甩是本能行为吗?婴儿期就有类似反射吗

nán shēng xiǎo biàn hòu shuǎi yī shuǎi shì běn néng háng wéi ma ? yīng ér qī jiù yǒu lèi sì fǎn shè ma

Is it instinctive for boys to shake after urinating? Is there a similar reflex in infancy?

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...政府传考虑扩大“232关税”版图 新增六类产业课征国安税

. . . zhèng fǔ chuán kǎo lǜ kuò dà 2 3 2 guān shuì bǎn tú xīn zēng liù lèi chǎn yè kè zhēng guó ān shuì

... The government is rumored to be considering expanding the territory of the "232 tariffs" and adding six new types of industries to impose national security tax

BastillepostFeb 2026

...跌821点 纳指跌逾1% AI报告引发多类股份下挫

. . . diē 8 2 1 diǎn nà zhǐ diē yú 1 A I bào gào yǐn fā duō lèi gǔ fèn xià cuò

... Down 821 points, the Nasdaq fell more than 1%, and the AI report triggered a decline in many stocks

三立新聞網Feb 2026

睡觉太亮恐影响健康?医点名3类人风险高

shuì jué tài liàng kǒng yǐng xiǎng jiàn kāng ? yī diǎn míng 3 lèi rén fēng xiǎn gāo

Sleeping too brightly may affect your health? The doctor named 3 types of people with high risk

BastillepostFeb 2026

脂肪肝不是胖人专利 三类高危族群与改善关键

zhī fáng gān bù shì pàng rén zhuān lì sān lèi gāo wēi zú qún yǔ gǎi shàn guān jiàn

Fatty liver is not the patent of fat people, three types of high-risk groups and the key to improvement

Tatoeba

癌症是人类的大敌。

áizhèng shì rénlèi de dà dí.

Cancer is a great enemy of humanity.

Tatoeba

人类是环境的产物。

Rénlèi shì huánjìng de chǎnwù.

Man is a creature of circumstances.

Tatoeba

鹅是一种水栖鸟类。

é shì yīzhǒng shuǐqī niǎolèi.

The goose is a waterfowl.

Tatoeba

白鸽是种美丽的鸟类。

Bái gē shì zhǒng měilì de niǎolèi.

White doves are pretty birds.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced lèi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 类 (lèi) mean in Chinese?
类 (lèi) primarily means "kind." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #311 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 类 have?
类 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 类?
The radical associated with 类 is 米 (rice). This radical appears in many characters related to rice.
What are the components of 类?
类 is composed of: 米 (structural), 大 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱米大 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 类?
Common words with 类 include: 人类 (rén lèi, "humanity"); 之类 (zhī lèi, "and so on"); 类似 (lèi sì, "similar"); 类型 (lèi xíng, "type"); 诸如此类 (zhū rú cǐ lèi, "things like this (idiom)"). There are over 102 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 类 (lèi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lèi: 雷 (thunder), 累 (tired), 泪 ((bound form) tears), 垒 (rampart), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 类 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 类 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 类 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.