(lóng): enclosing frame made of bamboo, wire etc, cage, basket, steamer basket, to envelop, to cover

(lóng) is a Chinese character meaning “enclosing frame made of bamboo, wire etc.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1904 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, bamboo. Its radical form (bamboo) appears in many related characters such as (xiào, to laugh), (, (prefix indicating ordinal number, as in 第六[di4 liu4] "sixth")), (děng, to wait for).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. enclosing frame made of bamboo, wire etc
  2. cage
  3. basket
  4. steamer basket
  5. to envelop
  6. to cover

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticbamboo

Decomposition: ⿱⺮龙 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
noundēng lónglantern6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
lóng zicage
lǒng zhàoto envelop
láo lóngcage
niǎo lóngbirdcage
dēng lóng kùbloomers
lǒng tǒnggeneral
qiú lóngcage used to hold or transport prisoners
huí lóngto steam again
zhēng lóngsteamer basket (e.g. for dim sum)
chū lóng(of food) to be taken out of the steamer
lǒng luòto coax
lóng touheadstall
fán lóngbird cage
shā lóng(loanword) sarong
fǎ lā dì lóng(physics) Faraday cage
43
Total compounds
26
As first character
49
As last character
26
As middle character

appears in 43 compound words: 26 as the first character, 49 as the last, and 26 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.

zhū
0.84136,486 co-occurrences
cāng
0.75812 co-occurrences
0.71912 co-occurrences
cǎo
0.67937,470 co-occurrences
wěi
0.64312 co-occurrences
0.62212 co-occurrences
chóng
0.5935,478 co-occurrences
duàn
0.57012 co-occurrences
zhào
0.5603,563 co-occurrences
dēng
0.5383,365 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

lóng niǎo jiàn yuánHSK 7+

bird in a basket, monkey in a cage (idiom); prisoner

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men lóng zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "笼."

Orientaldaily MyMar 2026

迪拜任厨大马男子 战火阴影罩上班心神不宁夜难眠

dí bài rèn chú dà mǎ nán zǐ zhàn huǒ yīn yǐng lóng zhào shàng bān xīn shén bù nìng yè nán mián

Dubai's chef Malaysian man is restless at work in the shadow of war, unable to sleep at night

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

彰化家扶爱心灯义卖“神秘客”再现踪 疑低调捐款6万元

zhāng huà jiā fú ài xīn dēng lóng yì mài shén mì kè zài xiàn zōng yí dī diào juān kuǎn 6 wàn yuán

Changhua Jiafu love lantern charity sale "mystery guest" reappeared suspected of low-key donation of 60,000 yuan

東森新聞Feb 2026

快讯/浓雾罩!台中机场07:00起“航班全停飞”

kuài xùn nóng wù lóng zhào ! tái zhōng jī chǎng 0 7 : 0 0 qǐ háng bān quán tíng fēi

News/Thick fog shrouded! Taichung Airport from 07:00 "full suspension of flights"

StheadlineFeb 2026

上水“怪兽仓”两幼犬被困内 一狗断尾惹乌蝇 区议员联络仓主无果报...

shàng shuǐ guài shòu cāng liǎng yòu quǎn bèi kùn lóng nèi yī gǒu duàn wěi rě wū yíng qū yì yuán lián lào cāng zhǔ wú guǒ bào . . .

Two puppies in the "monster warehouse" in Sheung Shui were trapped in a cage, and a dog broke its tail and provoked flies.

Tatoeba

在树枝上吊着。

Dēnglóng zài shùzhī shàngdiào zhe.

The lamp was suspended from the branch of a tree.

Tatoeba

田野和小径被雾气罩着。

Tiányě hé xiǎojìng bèi wùqì lǒngzhào zhe.

Mist hung over the fields and footpaths.

Tatoeba

阴霾罩着伦敦。

Yīnmái lǒngzhào zhe Lúndūn.

The haze enveloped London.

Tatoeba

世界就是一个疯子的囚

Shìjiè jiùshì yī gè fēngzi de qiú lóng.

The world is a den of crazies.

Tatoeba

女孩把鸟儿从中放了出来。

Nǚhái bǎ niǎor cóng lóng zhōng fàng le chūlái.

The girl released the birds from the cage.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced lóng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 笼 (lóng) mean in Chinese?
笼 (lóng) primarily means "enclosing frame made of bamboo, wire etc." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1904 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 笼 and 宠?
笼 (lóng) and 宠 (chǒng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 竹 vs 宀 (same 龙 component).
How many strokes does 笼 have?
笼 is written with 11 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 笼?
The radical associated with 笼 is 竹 (bamboo). This radical appears in many characters related to bamboo.
What are the components of 笼?
笼 is composed of: ⺮ (semantic), 龙 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱⺮龙 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 笼?
Common words with 笼 include: 笼子 (lóng zi, "cage"); 笼罩 (lǒng zhào, "to envelop"); 牢笼 (láo lóng, "cage"); 鸟笼 (niǎo lóng, "birdcage"); 灯笼 (dēng lóng, "lantern"). There are over 43 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 笼 (lóng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lóng: 咙 (used in 喉嚨|喉咙), 胧 (used in 朦朧|朦胧), 聋 (deaf), 垄 (ridge between fields), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 笼 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 笼 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.