列 (liè): to arrange, to line up, file

列 (liè) is a Chinese character meaning “to arrange.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 歹 (structural) and 刂 (semantic). It ranks #500 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 列 line. Its radical form 刂 (knife) appears in many related characters such as 分 (fēn, to divide), 别 (bié, to leave), 到 (dào, to reach).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to arrange
  2. to line up
  3. file

Etymology & Origin

列

pictophoneticline

Decomposition: ⿰歹刂 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 列

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
系列nounxì lièseries6
列车nounliè chē(railway) train5
排列verbpái lièto arrange in order5
一系列adjectiveyī xì lièa series of6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
以色列proper-nounyǐ sè lièIsrael
序列nounxù lièsequence
列出verbliè chūto list
行列nounháng lièformation
列表verbliè biǎoto tabulate
列为verbliè wéito be classified as
列入verbliè rùto include on a list
不列颠proper-nounbù liè diānBritain
列队verbliè duìin formation (military)
前列腺nounqián liè xiànprostate gland
队列nounduì lièformation (of troops)
大不列颠proper-noundà bù liè diānGreat Britain
列宁proper-nounliè níngVladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924), Russian revolutionary leader
出列verbchū liè(military) to leave one's place in the ranks
名列verbmíng lièto rank (number 1, or third last etc)
101
Total compounds
33
As first character
40
As last character
28
As middle character

列 appears in 101 compound words: 33 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 28 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 列 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

系xì
0.629357,252 co-occurrences
车chē
0.603179,108 co-occurrences
颠diān
0.5266,360 co-occurrences
表biǎo
0.525169,488 co-occurrences
序xù
0.50841,086 co-occurrences
颤chàn
0.48720 co-occurrences
传chuán
0.48247,340 co-occurrences
缸gāng
0.4776,416 co-occurrences
色sè
0.45579,394 co-occurrences
排pái
0.42238,134 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (13)

布列斯特BùlièsītèHSK 7+

Brest (a city in Belarus)

列宁格勒LiènínggélèHSK 7+

Leningrad; Leningrad (an oblast of Russia, surrounding the city of Saint Petersburg)

列宁主义Lièníng zhǔyìHSK 7+

Leninism

noun
列王纪上Lièwángjì ShàngHSK 6+

1 Kings

列王纪下Lièwángjì XiàHSK 6+

2 Kings

列祖列宗liè zǔ liè zōngHSK 7+

(idiom) one's ancestors through the generations

phrase
马恩列斯Mǎ-Ēn-Liè-SīHSK 7+

(Karl) Marx, (Friedrich) Engels, (Vladimir) Lenin and (Joseph) Stalin

马祖列岛Mǎzǔ LièdǎoHSK 6+

Matsu Islands

门捷列夫MénjiélièfūHSK 6+

a transliteration of the Russian surname Менделеев (Mendelejev), Mendeleev

名列前茅mínglièqiánmáoHSK 7+

to rank among the best

phrase
澎湖列岛Pénghú LièdǎoHSK 7+

Pescadores

Showing 11 of 13 idioms containing 列.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请把这些问题列出来,我们逐一解决。

Qǐng bǎ zhèxiē wèntí liè chūlai, wǒmen zhúyī jiějué.

Please list these problems, and we will solve them one by one.

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层|货运列车检车员:迟来的团圆,只为让更多..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng huò yùn liè chē jiǎn chē yuán : chí lái de tuán yuán , zhī wéi ràng gēng duō . .

Freight train inspector: belated reunion, just to let more:

百度新闻Feb 2026

中外交流|塞尔维亚举行系列新春庙会活动庆祝中国年

zhōng wài jiāo liú sāi ěr wéi yà jǔ háng xì liè xīn chūn miào huì huó dòng qìng zhù zhōng guó nián

Sino-Foreign Exchange|Serbia celebrates Chinese New Year with a series of Lunar New Year temple festivals

百度新闻Feb 2026

俄罗斯莫斯科地铁举行中国春节主题列车发车仪式

é luó sī mò sī kē dì tiě jǔ háng zhōng guó chūn jié zhǔ tí liè chē fā chē yí shì

Chinese New Year-themed train launch ceremony held in Russia's Moscow Metro

百度新闻Feb 2026

列国鉴|记者观察:食品贴上警示标签 智利欲...

liè guó jiàn jì zhě guàn chá shí pǐn tiē shǎng jǐng shì biāo qiān zhì lì yù . . .

China's foreign policy: Chile's food labeled with a warning...

百度新闻Feb 2026

春节不打烊,广州交投集团中欧班列预计发运9列、货值..

chūn jié bù dǎ 烊 , guǎng zhōu jiāo tóu jí tuán zhōng ōu bān liè yù jì fā yùn liè huò zhí . .

Guangzhou Transport Investment Group's China-Europe freight trains will operate throughout the Spring Festival period, with nine departures scheduled carrying goods valued at...

Tatoeba

数艘游艇在远方的海洋并列航行。

Shù sōu yóutǐng zài yuǎnfāng de hǎiyáng bìngliè hángxíng.

Several yachts were sailing side by side far out at sea.

Tatoeba

格列佛为寻求探险而旅行。

Gé liè Fó wèi xúnqiú tànxiǎn ér lǚxíng.

Gulliver traveled in quest of adventure.

Tatoeba

你能把这清单按字母顺序排列吗?

Nǐ néng bǎ zhè qīngdān àn zìmǔ shùnxù páiliè ma?

Could you rearrange this list so it's in alphabetical order?

Tatoeba

列昂尼德搜寻了网际网路。

Liè áng ní dé sōuxún le wǎngjìwǎnglù.

Leonid searched the Internet.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 刂 (line) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced liè

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 列 (liè) mean in Chinese?
列 (liè) primarily means "to arrange." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #500 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 列 and 下?
列 (liè) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 列 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 列 have?
列 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 列?
The radical associated with 列 is 刂 (knife). This radical appears in many characters related to knife.
What are the components of 列?
列 is composed of: 歹 (structural), 刂 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰歹刂 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 列?
Common words with 列 include: 系列 (xì liè, "series"); 列车 (liè chē, "(railway) train"); 以色列 (yǐ sè liè, "Israel"); 序列 (xù liè, "sequence"); 列出 (liè chū, "to list"). There are over 101 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 列 (liè)?
Several characters share the pronunciation liè: 烈 (intense, fierce), 裂 (to split, to crack), 猎 (hunting), 劣 (inferior), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 列 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 列 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 列 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.