(lěi): bud

(lěi) is a Chinese character meaning “bud.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2877 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, plant. Its radical form (grass) appears in many related characters such as (huā, flower), (chá, tea), (cài, vegetable, dish).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. bud

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticplant

Decomposition: ⿱艹雷 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
bā lěiballet (loanword)
bā lěi wǔballet (loanword)
wèi lěitaste bud(s)
huā lěibud
bèi lěiflower bud
shū fú lěi(loanword) soufflé
mò lěimole (Mexican sauce)
xìng lěi qīphallic stage (psychology)
kè lěi rClare (name)
lěi sī huā biānlace border (loanword)
lěi sī biān(slang) (loanword) lesbian
kǎ nà lěicanelé (a French pastry) (loanword)
shuǐ shàng bā lěisynchronized swimming
dù lěi sīDurex, a condom brand name
qiáng wēi huā lěirosebud
20
Total compounds
20
As first character
60
As last character
20
As middle character

appears in 20 compound words: 20 as the first character, 60 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.72927,138 co-occurrences
0.54112 co-occurrences
0.53620,244 co-occurrences
0.4794,179 co-occurrences
0.4548,430 co-occurrences
0.42113,368 co-occurrences
0.4215,700 co-occurrences
0.3964,338 co-occurrences
ài
0.3964,830 co-occurrences
0.3805,418 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

shuǐ shàng bā lěiHSK 7+

synchronized swimming

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

花园里的花含苞待放,预示着春天的到来。

Huāyuán lǐ de huālěi hán bāo dài fàng, yùshì zhe chūntiān de dàolái.

The flower buds in the garden are ready to bloom, heralding the arrival of spring.

EttodayApr 2026

...I角色变新网红 Z世代迷虚拟人物“咖啡芭舞者”爆红

. . . I jiǎo sè biàn xīn wǎng hóng Z shì dài mí xū nǐ rén wù kā fēi bā lěi wǔ zhě bào hóng

Hk01.comFeb 2026

前港姐旅遊歎陽光與海灘百變水着大解放 絲泳衣晒玲瓏有致身材

qián gǎng jiě lǚ 遊 歎 陽 guāng 與 hǎi 灘 bǎi 變 shuǐ zhe dà jiě fàng lěi 絲 yǒng yī shài 玲 瓏 yǒu zhì shēn cái

Former Miss Hong Kong travels to enjoy the sun and the beach, the ever-changing swimsuit is liberated, and the lace swimsuit shows off her exquisite figure

工商時報Feb 2026

草莓季甜點 繽紛層次引爆味驚喜

cǎo 莓 jì tián 點 繽 紛 層 cì yǐn bào wèi lěi 驚 xǐ

Strawberry season desserts are colorful and surprising to the taste buds

Tatoeba

莎修女被授予诺贝尔奖。

Tè lěi shā xiūnǚ bèi shòuyǔ Nuòbèi'ěr Jiǎng.

Mother Teresa was given the Nobel prize.

Tatoeba

萨米非常讨厌拉。

Sà mǐ fēicháng tǎoyàn lěi lā.

Sami hates Layla so much.

Tatoeba

拉在哪里?她不是跟你在一起吗?

Lěilā zài nǎlǐ? Tā bù shì gēn nǐ zàiyīqǐ ma?

Where is Layla? Isn't she with you?

Tatoeba

拉之前在和癌症作鬪爭。

Lěi lā zhīqián zài hé áizhèng zuò dòu zhēng.

Layla was battling cancer.

Tatoeba

退休后,德莎投身照顾孤儿的工作。

Tuìxiū hòu, Délěishā tóushēn zhàogu gū'ér de gōngzuò.

After retirement, Teresa devoted herself to caring for orphans.

Tatoeba

她的这件吊带丝睡衣很漂亮。

Tā de zhè jiàn diàodài lěisī shuìyī hěn piàoliang.

She has this pretty lace nightgown with straps.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced lěi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 蕾 (lěi) mean in Chinese?
蕾 (lěi) primarily means "bud." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2877 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 蕾 have?
蕾 is written with 16 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 蕾?
The radical associated with 蕾 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 蕾?
蕾 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 雷 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹雷 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 蕾?
Common words with 蕾 include: 芭蕾 (bā lěi, "ballet (loanword)"); 芭蕾舞 (bā lěi wǔ, "ballet (loanword)"); 味蕾 (wèi lěi, "taste bud(s)"); 花蕾 (huā lěi, "bud"); 蓓蕾 (bèi lěi, "flower bud"). There are over 20 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 蕾 (lěi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lěi: 雷 (thunder), 垒 (rampart), 磊 (lumpy), 泪 ((bound form) tears), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 蕾 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 蕾 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.