鲤 (lǐ): carp

鲤 (lǐ) is a Chinese character meaning “carp.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 鱼 (semantic) and 里 (phonetic). It ranks #3137 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 鲤 fish. Its radical form 鱼 (fish) appears in many related characters such as 鱼 (yú, fish), 鲜 (xiān, fresh), 鲨 (shā, shark).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. carp

Etymology & Origin

鲤

pictophoneticfish

Decomposition: ⿰鱼里 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
鲤鱼nounlǐ yúcarp
鲤鱼跳龙门lǐ yú tiào lóng ménto make a significant advance in one's career (idiom)
鲤城区lǐ chéng qūLicheng, a district of Quanzhou City 泉州市, Fujian
鲤鱼打挺lǐ yú dǎ tǐng(martial arts, gymnastics) to kip up (spring upright from supine without hands)
海鲤hǎi lǐsea bream
鲮鲤科líng lǐ kēthe pangolin family
鲤城proper-nounlǐ chéngsee 鯉城區|鲤城区
鲤鱼旗nounlǐ yú qíkoinobori, a Japanese carp-shaped windsock flown to celebrate Children's Day
鲮鲤甲nounlíng lǐ jiǎpangolin (Manis pentadactylata)
鲮鲤nounlíng lǐpangolin (Manis pentadactylata)
裸鲤luǒ lǐnaked carp (Gymnocypris przewalskii)
锦鲤nounjǐn lǐkoi (Cyprinus carpio haematopterus)
12
Total compounds
50
As first character
33
As last character
17
As middle character

鲤 appears in 12 compound words: 50 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 17 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 鲤 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

溺nì
0.74414 co-occurrences
纵zòng
0.65213 co-occurrences
毙bì
0.64114 co-occurrences
鱼yú
0.6361,380 co-occurrences
童tóng
0.54321 co-occurrences
船chuán
0.50012 co-occurrences
域yù
0.48911 co-occurrences
讨tǎo
0.47611 co-occurrences
锦jǐn
0.458196 co-occurrences
锯jù
0.45438 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习鲤字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

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

Learning to write the character "鲤" requires repeated practice to ensure it is written neatly.

NewsFeb 2026

花莲鲤鱼潭9岁男童溺毙 纵管处:与地方政府共同...

huā lián 鲤 yú tán suì nán tóng 溺 bì zòng guǎn chǔ yǔ dì fāng zhèng fǔ gòng tóng . . .

9-Year-Old Boy Drowns in Hualien's Liyu Lake Water Resources Agency: Jointly Investigating with Local Authorities...

NewsFeb 2026

8岁男童命丧花莲鲤鱼潭!家属控快艇“船尾浪”酿祸 交通部回...

suì nán tóng mìng sāng huā lián 鲤 yú tán ! jiā shǔ kòng kuài tǐng chuán wěi làng niàng huò jiāo tōng bù huí . . .

8-Year-Old Boy Dies in Hualien's Carp Pond! Family Blames Speedboat's "Wake" for Tragedy; Ministry of Transportation Responds...

NewsFeb 2026

纵管处启动鲤鱼潭水域安全全面检讨 将与地方协力强化管...

zòng guǎn chǔ qǐ dòng 鲤 yú tán shuǐ yù ān quán quán miàn jiǎn tǎo jiāng yǔ dì fāng xié lì qiáng huà guǎn . . .

The Waterways Management Division has launched a comprehensive safety review of the Liyutan water area and will collaborate with local authorities to strengthen management...

NewsFeb 2026

鲤鱼潭天鹅船翻覆9岁童溺毙!傅崐萁:花东出...

鲤 yú tán tiān é chuán fān fù suì tóng 溺 bì ! fù 崐 萁 huā dōng chū . . .

Capsized Swan Boat at Liyutan Leads to 9-Year-Old's Drowning! Fu Kun-chi: Hualien and Taitung...

NewsFeb 2026

“9岁童溺毙鲤鱼潭遭中央切割” 傅崐萁:民进党政府不改...

suì tóng 溺 bì 鲤 yú tán zāo zhōng yāng qiē gē fù 崐 萁 mín jìn dǎng zhèng fǔ bù gǎi . . .

"9-Year-Old Boy Drowns in Carp Pond, Central Government Shifts Blame" Fu Kun-chi: DPP Government Must Change...

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 鱼 (fish) component

鱼 Radical Family — Characters sharing the fish radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced lǐ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 鲤 (lǐ) mean in Chinese?
鲤 (lǐ) primarily means "carp." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3137 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 鲤 and 埋?
鲤 (lǐ) and 埋 (mái) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 鱼 vs 土 (same 里 component).
How many strokes does 鲤 have?
鲤 is written with 15 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 鲤?
The radical associated with 鲤 is 鱼 (fish). This radical appears in many characters related to fish.
What are the components of 鲤?
鲤 is composed of: 鱼 (semantic), 里 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰鱼里 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 鲤?
Common words with 鲤 include: 鲤鱼 (lǐ yú, "carp"); 鲤鱼跳龙门 (lǐ yú tiào lóng mén, "to make a significant advance in one's career (idiom)"); 鲤城区 (lǐ chéng qū, "Licheng, a district of Quanzhou City 泉州市, Fujian"); 鲤鱼打挺 (lǐ yú dǎ tǐng, "(martial arts, gymnastics) to kip up (spring upright from supine without hands)"); 海鲤 (hǎi lǐ, "sea bream"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 鲤 (lǐ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lǐ: 理 (texture). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 鲤 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 鲤 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 鲤 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.