(liě): to draw back the corners of one's mouth

(liě) is a Chinese character meaning “to draw back the corners of one's mouth.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2595 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, mouth. Its radical form (mouth) appears in many related characters such as (kǒu, mouth), (jiào, to call, to be called), (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to draw back the corners of one's mouth

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口列 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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
dà dà liē liē(idiom) carefree
zī yá liě zuǐto grimace (in pain)
mà ma liē liēto swear while talking
liě kāi zuǐ xiàoto laugh
zī yá liě zuǐto grimace (in pain)
liě zuǐto grin
liē liē(dialect) to cry
7
Total compounds
43
As first character
0
As last character
57
As middle character

appears in 7 compound words: 43 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 57 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.

zuǐ
0.512414 co-occurrences
0.48172 co-occurrences
0.47272 co-occurrences
0.468108 co-occurrences
xiào
0.417222 co-occurrences
0.3963,078 co-occurrences
a
0.38242 co-occurrences
niáng
0.34060 co-occurrences
0.33036 co-occurrences
zǎo
0.321192 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

dàdaliēliēHSK 7+

casual; offhand

adjective
màmaliēliēHSK 7+

foul-mouthed; showering curses and abuse; continuously swearing

phrase
zīyáliězuǐHSK 7+

to draw back the corners of one's mouth and bare one's teeth; to look fierce; to grimace in pain

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

干舌燥地讲了两个小时,终于说服了大家。

tā liē gān jī zào dì jiǎng le liǎng gě xiǎo shí , zhōng yú shuō fú le dà jiā .

He talked for two hours, his mouth dry, and finally convinced everyone.

三立新聞網Mar 2026

“细X北”巴掌甩左脸 工读生伤势曝光

xì liě X běi bā zhǎng shuǎi zuǒ liǎn gōng dòu shēng shāng shì pù guāng

工商時報Mar 2026

...小时通牒 威胁摧毁伊朗发电厂 全球市场锉

. . . xiǎo shí tōng 牒 wēi xié cuī huǐ yī lǎng fā diàn hǎn quán qiú shì chǎng 锉 liě děng

...24-hour ultimatum: Threat to destroy Iranian power plant; global markets on edge

StheadlineMar 2026

英超│列斯占士又拉伤大腿 传提早收 或未能出战世界杯

yīng chāo liè sī zhàn shì yòu lā shāng dà tuǐ chuán tí zǎo shōu liě huò wèi néng chū zhàn shì jiè bēi

Premier League | Reece James Suffers Another Thigh Strain; Reportedly Set to End Season Early, May Miss World Cup

東森新聞Mar 2026

台股明开盘挫等?专家点4关键:该来还是来了

tái gǔ míng kāi pán cuò liě děng ? zhuān jiā diǎn 4 guān jiàn : gāi lái hái shì lái le

Taiwan stocks fell tomorrow? Expert point 4 key: It's time to come

Tatoeba

我才不是讨厌

Wǒ cái búshì tǎoyàn lei.

I'm not annoyed at all.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced liě

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 咧 (liě) mean in Chinese?
咧 (liě) primarily means "to draw back the corners of one's mouth." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2595 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 咧 and 前?
咧 (liě) and 前 (qián) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 咧 (back) vs 前 (front).
How many strokes does 咧 have?
咧 is written with 9 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 咧?
The radical associated with 咧 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 咧?
咧 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 列 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口列 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 咧?
Common words with 咧 include: 大大咧咧 (dà dà liē liē, "(idiom) carefree"); 龇牙咧嘴 (zī yá liě zuǐ, "to grimace (in pain)"); 骂骂咧咧 (mà ma liē liē, "to swear while talking"); 咧开嘴笑 (liě kāi zuǐ xiào, "to laugh"); 呲牙咧嘴 (zī yá liě zuǐ, "to grimace (in pain)"). There are over 7 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 咧 (liě)?
Several characters share the pronunciation liě: 烈 (intense, fierce), 裂 (to split, to crack), 列 (to arrange), 劣 (inferior), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 咧 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 咧 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.