(lěi): to accumulate, to involve or implicate (Taiwan pr.), continuous

(lěi) is a Chinese character meaning “to accumulate.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1315 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, simplified form of 纍; growing silk 糸 in the fields 畾; 畾 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form (silk) appears in many related characters such as (, to connect), (shào, to continue), (gěi, give).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to accumulate
  2. to involve or implicate (Taiwan pr.)
  3. continuous

Etymology & Origin

ideographicSimplified form of 纍; growing silk 糸 in the fields 畾; 畾 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿱田糸 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbjī lěito accumulate4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
lián leito implicate
tuō lěito encumber
léi zhuìsuperfluous
lěi jīto accumulate
láo lèitired
léi léi(literary) (of fruit, achievements etc) clusters of
lèi kuǎto collapse
fù zhài lěi lěideep in debt
shòu lěito get dragged into
lěi jìto calculate the running total
cháng nián lěi yuèyear in, year out (idiom)
rì jī yuè lěito accumulate over a long period of time
dé léi sī dùnDresden, capital of Saxony 薩克森州|萨克森州[Sa4 ke4 sen1 Zhou1], Germany
chéng nián lěi yuèyear in, year out (idiom)
mǎ lèiMalé, capital of Maldives
65
Total compounds
28
As first character
23
As last character
49
As middle character

appears in 65 compound words: 28 as the first character, 23 as the last, and 49 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.58375,973 co-occurrences
0.52730,551 co-occurrences
zhuì
0.509582 co-occurrences
zhěn
0.5089,288 co-occurrences
hén
0.4833,822 co-occurrences
0.4814,734 co-occurrences
tuō
0.4744,947 co-occurrences
0.4662,136 co-occurrences
0.44623,562 co-occurrences
dùn
0.4436,588 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (21)

cháng nián lěi yuèHSK 2+

variant of 長年累月|长年累月[chang2 nian2 lei3 yue4]

phrase
chéngniánlěiyuèHSK 3+

over many years and months; year in, year out

phrase
chéngqiānlěiwànHSK 3+

by the thousands and tens of thousands; untold numbers; innumerable; thousands upon thousands

phrase
DélěisīdùnHSK 7+

Dresden

fùzhài lěilěiHSK 7+

to be deep in debt; to be debt-ridden

phrase
jī dé lěi gōngHSK 6+

to accumulate merit and virtue

phrase
jī jīn lěi yùHSK 5+

to accumulate gold and jewels (idiom); prosperous

phrase
jī nián lěi yuèHSK 4+

year in, year out (idiom); (over) many years

phrase
jīng nián lěi yuèHSK 2+

for years; over the years

phrase
lèijuébù'àiHSK 2+

to feel too tired to love any more

phrase
lěisǐlěihuóHSK 4+

work oneself to death; tire oneself out through overwork

phrase
rìjīyuèlěiHSK 4+

to accumulate over a long period; gradual accumulation

phrase

Showing 12 of 21 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le lěi zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "累" in the dictionary.

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

比特币2月至今跌逾19% 势创逾三年半最差月度表现

bǐ tè bì 2 yuè zhì jīn lěi diē yú 1 9 shì chuàng yú sān nián bàn zuì chā yuè dù biǎo xiàn

Bitcoin has fallen more than 19% since February, the worst monthly performance in more than three and a half years

EttodayFeb 2026

MG宣布“欧洲新车积销量突破百万辆”!电动化布局成核心动能

M G xuān bù ōu zhōu xīn chē lěi jī xiāo liàng tū pò bǎi wàn liàng ! diàn dòng huà bù jú chéng hé xīn dòng néng

MG announced that "the cumulative sales of new cars in Europe exceeded one million units"! Electrification layout has become the core driving force

EttodayFeb 2026

放年假比上班还?教你简单4招让身心快速归零

fàng nián jiǎ bǐ shàng bān hái lěi ? jiào nǐ jiǎn dān 4 zhāo ràng shēn xīn kuài sù guī líng

Is annual leave more tiring than going to work? Teach you 4 simple tricks to quickly zero your body and mind

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

春运过半 中国铁路计发送旅客2.58亿人次

chūn yùn guò bàn zhōng guó tiě lù lěi jì fā sòng lǚ kè 2 . 5 8 yì rén cì

More than half of the Spring Festival travel China Railway has sent a total of 258 million passengers

Am730Feb 2026

启德海湾售742伙套现逾60亿 短期内推第2期|...

qǐ dé hǎi wān lěi shòu 7 4 2 huǒ tào xiàn yú 6 0 yì duǎn qī nèi tuī dì 2 qī . . .

Kai Tak Bay has sold a total of 742 units and cashed out more than 6 billion yuan, launching the second phase in the short term|...

Tatoeba

他看起来有点,不是吗?

Tā kànqǐlai yǒudiǎn lèi, bùshìma?

He looks a bit tired, doesn't he?

Tatoeba

这些天你工作太多了。你不吗?

Zhèxiē tiān nǐ gōngzuò tài duō le. nǐ bù lèi ma?

You work too hard these days. Aren't you tired?

Tatoeba

这下搞得你今天死了!

Zhè xià gǎo de nǐ jīntiān lèi sǐ le!

You've tired yourself out today!

Tatoeba

他说他了,所以他想早点回家。

Tā shuō tā lèi le, suǒyǐ tā xiǎng zǎodiǎn huíjiā.

He said he was tired, so he would go home early.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced lěi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 累 (lěi) mean in Chinese?
累 (lěi) primarily means "to accumulate." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1315 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 累 have?
累 is written with 8 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 累?
The radical associated with 累 is 纟 (silk). This radical appears in many characters related to silk.
What are the components of 累?
累 is composed of: 田 (structural), 糸 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱田糸 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 累?
Common words with 累 include: 连累 (lián lei, "to implicate"); 拖累 (tuō lěi, "to encumber"); 积累 (jī lěi, "to accumulate"); 累赘 (léi zhuì, "superfluous"); 累积 (lěi jī, "to accumulate"). There are over 65 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 累 (lěi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lěi: 雷 (thunder), 垒 (rampart), 磊 (lumpy), 蕾 (bud), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 累 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 累 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.