肋 (lèi): (bound form) rib

肋 (lèi) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) rib.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of ⺼ (semantic) and 力 (phonetic). It ranks #2419 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 肋 flesh. Its radical form 肉 (meat) appears in many related characters such as 能 (néng, can), 肩 (jiān, shoulder), 胸 (xiōng, chest).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) rib

Etymology & Origin

肋

pictophoneticflesh

Decomposition: ⿰⺼力 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
肋骨nounlèi gǔrib
两肋插刀phraseliǎng lèi chā dāo(lit.) to take knives in both sides (idiom)
肋间肌nounlèi jiān jīintercostal muscle
鸡肋nounjī lèichicken rib
加里肋亚海jiā lǐ lèi yà hǎiSea of Galilee
加里肋亚jiā lǐ lèi yàGalilee
加利肋亚jiā lì lèi yàGalilee (in biblical Palestine)
安德肋ān dé lèiAndrew (Catholic transliteration)
肋眼lèi yǎnrib-eye steak
季肋区jì lèi qū(anatomy) hypochondriac region
肋木lèi mù(gymnastics) wall bars
沅江九肋yuán jiāng jiǔ lèirare talent
季肋jì lèi(anatomy) the floating ribs
软肋nounruǎn lèi(anatomy) costal cartilage
凯撒肋雅kǎi sā lèi yǎCaesarea (town in Israel, between Tel Aviv and Haifa)
16
Total compounds
25
As first character
38
As last character
38
As middle character

肋 appears in 16 compound words: 25 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 38 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

两肋插刀liǎnglèichādāo

to bend over backwards; to risk anything

phrase

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

学习的过程中就受了点伤,裂了两条肋骨。

xué xí de guò chéng zhōng jiù shòu le diǎn shāng , liè le liǎng tiáo lèi gǔ .

I sustained a minor injury while studying—I cracked two ribs.

少数派Sep 2026

刚开始我觉得这功能有点鸡肋。

gāng kāi shǐ wǒ jué dé zhè gōng néng yǒu diǎn jī lèi .

At first, I thought this feature was a bit useless.

少数派Aug 2026

鸡肋、没必要加价 大屏娱乐、联网影音、语音控制 。

jī lèi , méi bì yào jiā jià dà píng yú lè , lián wǎng yǐng yīn , yǔ yīn kòng zhì .

A waste of money; no need to pay extra. Large-screen entertainment, streaming media, and voice control.

中国新闻网·体育Jul 2026

谁能将自身优势精准打在对手软肋上、牢牢守住防守底线,谁就能掌握比赛主动。

shéi néng jiāng zì shēn yōu shì jīng zhǔn dǎ zài duì shǒu ruǎn lèi shàng , láo láo shǒu zhù fáng shǒu dǐ xiàn , shéi jiù néng zhǎng wò bǐ sài zhǔ dòng .

Whoever can precisely exploit their opponent’s weaknesses with their own strengths and firmly hold their defensive line will take control of the game.

爱范儿Jul 2026

这其实暴露了所有地震预警系统的软肋:速度和精度都是此消彼长、矛和盾的关系。

zhè qí shí bào lù le suǒ yǒu dì zhèn yù jǐng xì tǒng de ruǎn lèi : sù dù hé jīng dù dōu shì cǐ xiāo bǐ cháng , máo hé dùn de guān xì .

This actually exposes the Achilles' heel of all earthquake early-warning systems: speed and accuracy are in a trade-off relationship, much like a sword and a shield.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the ⺼ (flesh) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 肋 (lèi) mean in Chinese?
肋 (lèi) primarily means "(bound form) rib." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #2419 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 肋 and 历?
肋 (lèi) and 历 (lì) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 肉 vs 厂 (same 力 component).
How many strokes does 肋 have?
肋 is written with 6 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 肋?
The radical associated with 肋 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 肋?
肋 is composed of: ⺼ (semantic), 力 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰⺼力 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 肋?
Common words with 肋 include: 肋骨 (lèi gǔ, "rib"); 两肋插刀 (liǎng lèi chā dāo, "(lit.) to take knives in both sides (idiom)"); 肋间肌 (lèi jiān jī, "intercostal muscle"); 鸡肋 (jī lèi, "chicken rib"); 加里肋亚海 (jiā lǐ lèi yà hǎi, "Sea of Galilee"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
Is 肋 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 肋 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 肋 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.