(liū): to slip away, to escape in stealth, to skate

(liū) is a Chinese character meaning “to slip away.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1900 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, water. Its radical form (water) appears in many related characters such as (shuǐ, water), (hàn, Han ethnic group), (, steam).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to slip away
  2. to escape in stealth
  3. to skate

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵留 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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
liū zǒuto slip away
liū bīngice skating
yī liù yānlike a wisp of smoke
liū dato stroll
liū bīng chǎngice rink
liū bīng xiéskating shoes
huá liūto sauté in sticky sauce
liū zhī dà jíto steal away
huī liū liūdull gray
suān liū liūsour
liū hào(coll.) to slink off
shùn kǒu liūpopular piece of doggerel
liū xū pāi mǎto smooth whiskers and pat a horse's bottom (idiom)
hēi bù liū qiūdark and swarthy
huī bu liū qiūsee 灰不溜丟|灰不溜丢[hui1 bu5 liu1 diu1]
54
Total compounds
33
As first character
24
As last character
43
As middle character

appears in 54 compound words: 33 as the first character, 24 as the last, and 43 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.

bīng
0.63313,195 co-occurrences
huá
0.5344,362 co-occurrences
tōu
0.5313,058 co-occurrences
chí
0.5013,852 co-occurrences
xié
0.465816 co-occurrences
qiǎo
0.458318 co-occurrences
0.446258 co-occurrences
0.419882 co-occurrences
0.415336 co-occurrences
huā
0.3892,658 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

gǔn guā liū yuánHSK 7+

(of animals) round and fat

phrase
hēibùliūqiūHSK 7+

in black colour

phrase
hú chě bā liūHSK 7+

to talk nonsense

phrase
huāshì liūbīngHSK 7+

figure skating

noun
huī bu liū diūHSK 7+

gloomy and dull (idiom); boring and gray; unpleasantly murky

phrase
liūxūpāimǎHSK 7+

to brownnose; to kiss someone's ass; to suck up

phrase
liūzhīdàjíHSK 7+

to sneak away; to escape stealthily

phrase
suānbuliūdiūHSK 7+

too sour; unpleasantly sour; a bit envious; jealous

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这条流经三个省份,滋养了沿岸的农田。

zhè tiáo liū liú jīng sān gě shěng fèn , zī yǎng le yán àn de nóng tián .

This river flows through three provinces, nourishing the farmland along its banks.

StheadlineMar 2026

NBA|当积狂轰43分退马 分手后化悲愤为力量 近9战场均近40...

N B A dāng jī kuáng hōng 4 3 fēn tuì liū mǎ fēn shǒu hòu huà bēi fèn wéi lì liàng jìn 9 zhàn chǎng jūn jìn 4 0 . . .

NBA | Deng scores 43 points to defeat the Pacers; turns heartbreak into strength after breakup; averaging nearly 40 points over the last 9 games...

BastillepostMar 2026

马刺大胜马 文班亚马贡献20分助球队取胜

mǎ cì dà shèng liū mǎ wén bān yà mǎ gòng xiàn 2 0 fēn zhù qiú duì qǔ shèng

Spurs Rout Pacers; Wembanyama Scores 20 Points to Lead Team to Victory

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

NBA/交易后只出赛5场 马祖巴兹赛季报销

N B A jiāo yì hòu zhī chū sài 5 chǎng liū mǎ zǔ bā zī sài jì bào xiāo

NBA: After just five games following the trade, Pacers' Zubac is out for the season

StheadlineFeb 2026

北角失常内地男破坏城巴车窗 再抢车致后撼九巴 警赶至制服

běi jiǎo shī cháng nèi dì nán pò huài chéng bā chē chuāng zài qiǎng chē zhì liū hòu hàn jiǔ bā jǐng gǎn zhì zhì fú

North Point abnormal mainland man broke Citybus window and then snatched the car and shook the KMB after slipping The police rushed to the uniform

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

【厝内大小事】知路/红包开啦!呼叫福气侦探队

厝 nèi dà xiǎo shì zhī lù hóng bāo kāi liū lā ! hū jiào fú qì zhēn tàn duì

【Big and Small Things in the House】Know the Road/Red Envelope Open It! Call the Blessing Detectives

Tatoeba

汤姆偷进了派对。

Tāngmǔ tōu liū jìn le pàiduì.

Tom snuck into the party.

Tatoeba

你比较喜欢冰还是滑雪?

Nǐ bǐjiào xǐhuan liūbīng háishi huáxuě?

Which do you like better, skating or skiing?

Tatoeba

过去我们每个周末都去冰。

Guòqù wǒmen měige zhōumò dōu qù liūbīng.

We used to go skating every weekend.

Tatoeba

下班时间还没到,大家就想走。

Xiàbān shíjiān hái méi dào, dàjiā jiù xiǎng liūzǒu.

It still isn't time to leave work, and everyone wants to escape.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced liū

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 溜 (liū) mean in Chinese?
溜 (liū) primarily means "to slip away." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1900 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 溜 have?
溜 is written with 13 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 溜?
The radical associated with 溜 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 溜?
溜 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 留 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵留 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 溜?
Common words with 溜 include: 溜走 (liū zǒu, "to slip away"); 溜冰 (liū bīng, "ice skating"); 一溜烟 (yī liù yān, "like a wisp of smoke"); 溜达 (liū da, "to stroll"); 溜冰场 (liū bīng chǎng, "ice rink"). There are over 54 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 溜 (liū)?
Several characters share the pronunciation liū: 瘤 (tumor), 遛 (to stroll), 刘 ((classical) a type of battle-ax), 浏 (clear), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 溜 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 溜 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.