僚 (liáo): bureaucrat, colleague

僚 (liáo) is a Chinese character meaning “bureaucrat.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亻 (semantic) and 尞 (phonetic). It ranks #2180 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 僚 person. Its radical form 亻 (person) appears in many related characters such as 人 (rén, person), 什 (shén, what), 今 (jīn, now).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. bureaucrat
  2. colleague

Etymology & Origin

僚

pictophoneticperson

Decomposition: ⿰亻尞 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
同僚nountóng liáocolleague
官僚adjectiveguān liáobureaucrat
幕僚nounmù liáoaides and advisors of top officials
官僚主义nounguān liáo zhǔ yìbureaucracy
僚机nounliáo jīwingman aircraft
官僚习气guān liáo xí qì(derog.) bureaucracy
技术官僚nounjì shù guān liáotechnocrat
臣僚nounchén liáocourt official (in former times)
阁僚noungé liáocabinet member
9
Total compounds
11
As first character
67
As last character
22
As middle character

僚 appears in 9 compound words: 11 as the first character, 67 as the last, and 22 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 僚 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

柯kē
0.64216 co-occurrences
幕mù
0.6218,146 co-occurrences
哲zhé
0.56612 co-occurrences
官guān
0.5359,700 co-occurrences
同tóng
0.4206,330 co-occurrences
阁gé
0.376250 co-occurrences
臣chén
0.369624 co-occurrences
助zhù
0.36510 co-occurrences
阀fá
0.34848 co-occurrences
召zhào
0.342108 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

官僚主义guānliáo zhǔyìHSK 7+

bureaucracy; bureaucratism

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

她僚长得很美,心地也很善良。

tā liáo cháng dé hěn měi , xīn dì yě hěn shàn liáng .

She was exceptionally beautiful and had a kind heart.

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

为一个“贪婪罪犯”上凯道?前幕僚开呛柯文哲:践踏民主独裁者

wéi yī gè tān lán zuì fàn shàng kǎi dào ? qián mù liáo kāi qiàng 柯 wén zhé : jiàn tà mín zhǔ dú cái zhě

Taking a "greedy criminal" to Kaido? Former aide lashes out at Ko Wen-je: "A dictator who tramples on democracy"

LtnMar 2026

高雄智慧城市展被陈其迈点名 鸿海AI幕僚、AI助理吸睛

gāo xióng zhì huì chéng shì zhǎn bèi chén qí mài diǎn míng 鸿 hǎi A I mù liáo , A I zhù lǐ xī jīng

Chen Chi-mai Highlights Kaohsiung Smart City Expo; Foxconn’s AI Advisors and AI Assistants Steal the Show

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

陈佩琪喊“跳楼”护柯文哲!前幕僚酸爆:清白不是哭出来的

chén pèi 琪 hǎn tiào lóu hù 柯 wén zhé ! qián mù liáo suān bào : qīng bái bù shì kū chū lái de

Chen Pei-chi Threatens to "Jump Off a Building" to Defend Ko Wen-je! Former Aide Slams Her: "Innocence Isn't Something You Cry Your Way Into"

EttodayMar 2026

后悔318太阳花学运造神柯文哲! 前幕僚:我这辈子犯最大的错

hòu huǐ 3 1 8 tài yáng huā xué yùn zào shén 柯 wén zhé ! qián mù liáo : wǒ zhè bèi zǐ fàn zuì dà de cuò

"I regret making Ko Wen-je a hero during the 318 Sunflower Movement!" Former aide: "It was the biggest mistake of my life."

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

柯建铭万年总召卸任 10年幕僚全说了:跟助理吃苦的长辈

柯 jiàn míng wàn nián zǒng zhào xiè rèn 1 0 nián mù liáo quán shuō le : gēn zhù lǐ chī kǔ de cháng bèi

Ke Jianming's 10-year general summons to step down from his post All the staff said: the elders who endured hardships with their assistants

Tatoeba

阿尔及利亚需要摆脱官僚主义。

ā'ěrjílìyà xūyào bǎituō guānliáozhǔyì.

Algeria needs to get rid of its bureaucracy.

Tatoeba

他几乎不和他的同僚友好相处。

Tā jīhūbù hé tā de tóngliáo yǒuhǎo xiāngchǔ.

He is hardly friendly with his fellow workers.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 亻 (person) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced liáo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 僚 (liáo) mean in Chinese?
僚 (liáo) primarily means "bureaucrat." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2180 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 僚 have?
僚 is written with 14 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 僚?
The radical associated with 僚 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 僚?
僚 is composed of: 亻 (semantic), 尞 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻尞 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 僚?
Common words with 僚 include: 同僚 (tóng liáo, "colleague"); 官僚 (guān liáo, "bureaucrat"); 幕僚 (mù liáo, "aides and advisors of top officials"); 官僚主义 (guān liáo zhǔ yì, "bureaucracy"); 僚机 (liáo jī, "wingman aircraft"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 僚 (liáo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation liáo: 潦 (used in 潦草 (sloppy) and 潦倒 (down on one's luck)), 料 (material), 疗 (to treat), 聊 (chat), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 僚 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 僚 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 僚 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.