瘤 (liú): tumor

瘤 (liú) is a Chinese character meaning “tumor.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 疒 (semantic) and 留 (phonetic). It ranks #2098 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 瘤 sickness. Its radical form 疒 (illness) appears in many related characters such as 医 (yī, medicine), 病 (bìng, illness), 疼 (téng, ache).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. tumor

Etymology & Origin

瘤

pictophoneticsickness

Decomposition: ⿸疒留 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
肿瘤nounzhǒng liútumor
动脉瘤noundòng mài liúaneurysm
脑瘤nounnǎo liúbrain tumor
毒瘤noundú liúmalignant tumor
恶性肿瘤nounè xìng zhǒng liúmalignant tumor
瘤子nounliú zitumor
肿瘤科nounzhǒng liú kēoncology
肉瘤nounròu liúwart
骨瘤noungǔ liúosteoma (benign tumor composed of bone-like material)
良性肿瘤nounliáng xìng zhǒng liúbenign tumor
国际肿瘤研究机构guó jì zhǒng liú yán jiū jī gòuInternational Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
黑色素瘤hēi sè sù liúmelanoma
间皮瘤nounjiān pí liúmesothelioma (medicine)
恶性瘤è xìng liúmalignant tumor
血管瘤nounxuè guǎn liúangioma (medicine)
34
Total compounds
6
As first character
76
As last character
18
As middle character

瘤 appears in 34 compound words: 6 as the first character, 76 as the last, and 18 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 瘤 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

肿zhǒng
0.8128,992 co-occurrences
剔tī
0.66410 co-occurrences
淋lín
0.5581,385 co-occurrences
胞bāo
0.5232,404 co-occurrences
髓suǐ
0.514462 co-occurrences
腺xiàn
0.507527 co-occurrences
畸jī
0.507260 co-occurrences
细xì
0.4751,350 co-occurrences
恶è
0.473802 co-occurrences
肌jī
0.469333 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

恶性肿瘤èxìng zhǒngliúHSK 7+

malignant tumor

noun
良性肿瘤liángxìng zhǒngliúHSK 7+

benign tumor

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

瘤字在日常生活中使用频率较低。

liú zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ jiào dī .

The character "tumor" is not commonly used in everyday life.

99 健康网Feb 2026

子宫腺肌症合并腺肌瘤怎么治疗好?病灶复杂时需多学科会诊吗

zǐ gōng xiàn jī zhèng gě bìng xiàn jī liú zěn má zhì liáo hǎo ? bìng zào fù zá shí xū duō xué kē huì zhěn ma

How to treat adenomyosis with adenomyosis? Is multidisciplinary consultation necessary when the lesion is complex?

99 健康网Feb 2026

子宫腺肌瘤怎么治才能缩小病灶?高强度聚焦超声(HI...

zǐ gōng xiàn jī liú zěn má zhì cái néng suō xiǎo bìng zào ? gāo qiáng dù jù jiāo chāo shēng ( H I . . .

How to treat adenofibroids to shrink the lesion? High-intensity focused ultrasound (HI...

99 健康网Feb 2026

子宫腺肌瘤怎么治最好?局限型比弥漫型更适合手术剔除...

zǐ gōng xiàn jī liú zěn má zhì zuì hǎo ? jú xiàn xíng bǐ mí màn xíng gēng shì gě shǒu shù tī chú . . .

How is adenofibroids best treated? The localized type is more suitable for surgical removal than the diffuse type...

99 健康网Feb 2026

子宫腺肌瘤目前最好的治疗方法是什么?腹腔镜剔除术后...

zǐ gōng xiàn jī liú mù qián zuì hǎo de zhì liáo fāng fǎ shì shén má ? fù qiāng jìng tī chú shù hòu . . .

What is the best treatment for adenofibroids right now? After laparoscopic resection...

99 健康网Feb 2026

...低回声有几种可能?包括妊娠囊、血块或小肌瘤吗

. . . dī huí shēng yǒu jī zhǒng kě néng ? bāo kuò 妊 娠 náng , xiě kuài huò xiǎo jī liú ma

... How many possibilities are hypoechoic? Including gestational sacs, blood clots, or small fibroids

Tatoeba

我得了胃肿瘤,必须动手术切除。

Wǒ déle wèi zhǒngliú, bìxū dòngshǒu shù qiēchú.

I got a stomach tumor and had to have it operated on.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 疒 (sickness) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced liú

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 瘤 (liú) mean in Chinese?
瘤 (liú) primarily means "tumor." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2098 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 瘤 have?
瘤 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 瘤?
The radical associated with 瘤 is 疒 (illness). This radical appears in many characters related to illness.
What are the components of 瘤?
瘤 is composed of: 疒 (semantic), 留 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸疒留 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 瘤?
Common words with 瘤 include: 肿瘤 (zhǒng liú, "tumor"); 动脉瘤 (dòng mài liú, "aneurysm"); 脑瘤 (nǎo liú, "brain tumor"); 毒瘤 (dú liú, "malignant tumor"); 恶性肿瘤 (è xìng zhǒng liú, "malignant tumor"). There are over 34 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 瘤 (liú)?
Several characters share the pronunciation liú: 溜 (to slip away), 遛 (to stroll), 流 (to flow), 留 (to stay, to keep), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 瘤 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 瘤 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 瘤 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.