陋 (lòu): low, humble, plain

陋 (lòu) is a Chinese character meaning “low.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 阝 (semantic), 乚 (structural) and 丙 (structural). It ranks #2533 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 陋 village. Its radical form 阝 (mound) appears in many related characters such as 那 (nà, (specifier) that), 都 (dōu, all), 院 (yuàn, courtyard).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. low
  2. humble
  3. plain

Etymology & Origin

陋

pictophoneticvillage

Decomposition: ⿰阝⿺乚丙 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
丑陋adjectivechǒu lòuugly
简陋adjectivejiǎn lòusimple and crude
陋习nounlòu xícorrupt practice
孤陋寡闻phrasegū lòu guǎ wénignorant and inexperienced
粗陋adjectivecū lòucrude
陈规陋习phrasechén guī lòu xí(idiom) outmoded conventions
鄙陋adjectivebǐ lòusuperficial
因陋就简yīn lòu jiù jiǎncrude but simple methods (idiom)
陋规nounlòu guīobjectionable practices
陋居lòu jūThe Burrow (Harry Potter)
陋屋lòu wūhumble dwelling
孤陋gū lòuignorant
陋俗nounlòu súundesirable customs
愚陋yú lòuignorant and backward
卑陋龌龊bēi lòu wò chuòsordid and contemptible (idiom)
18
Total compounds
28
As first character
50
As last character
22
As middle character

陋 appears in 18 compound words: 28 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 22 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 陋 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

丑chǒu
0.561962 co-occurrences
简jiǎn
0.5401,348 co-occurrences
鄙bǐ
0.509136 co-occurrences
貌mào
0.476404 co-occurrences
僻pì
0.44758 co-occurrences
巷xiàng
0.410174 co-occurrences
粗cū
0.399146 co-occurrences
习xí
0.393252 co-occurrences
隘ài
0.37926 co-occurrences
俗sú
0.368160 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

陈规陋习chénguīlòuxíHSK 7+

outdated and objectionable rules and customs

phrase
孤陋寡闻gūlòuguǎwénHSK 7+

ignorant and ill-informed

phrase
卑陋龌龊bēi lòu wò chuòHSK 7+

sordid and contemptible (idiom); vile and repulsive (esp. character or action)

phrase

Showing 3 of 4 idioms containing 陋.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

陋字由8笔画组成,结构很巧妙。

lòu zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "陋" consists of eight strokes and has a very ingenious structure.

中国新闻网·体育Aug 2026

他回忆,那时设备简陋,只能“手搓”。

tā huí yì , nà shí shè bèi jiǎn lòu , zhī néng shǒu cuō .

He recalled that the equipment was rudimentary back then, so they had to “knead it by hand.”

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

尽管制作条件简陋,但《牛来》的上映流程完全合规、有据可查。

jǐn guǎn zhì zuò tiáo jiàn jiǎn lòu , dàn niú lái de shàng yìng liú chéng wán quán gě guī , yǒu jù kě chá .

Despite the modest production conditions, the release process for *The Ox Comes* was fully compliant with regulations and well-documented.

少数派Aug 2026

轻量不等于界面简陋,也不等于少用新的系统能力。

qīng liàng bù děng yú jiè miàn jiǎn lòu , yě bù děng yú shǎo yòng xīn de xì tǒng néng lì .

"Lightweight" does not mean a crude interface, nor does it mean making less use of new system capabilities.

LtnMar 2026

台语片资深女星白蝶独居过世无人知 灵堂简陋周游鼻酸

tái yǔ piàn zī shēn nǚ xīng bái dié dú jū guò shì wú rén zhī líng táng jiǎn lòu zhōu yóu bí suān

Veteran Taiwanese actress Bai Die passed away alone without anyone knowing; the makeshift memorial left Zhou You heartbroken

東方日報Mar 2026

正论:围标陋习存已久 提高刑责绝乱象

zhèng lùn : wéi biāo lòu xí cún yǐ jiǔ tí gāo xíng zé jué luàn xiàng

Opinion: The Malpractice of Bid-Rigging Has Persisted for Years; Strengthening Criminal Penalties Is the Only Way to End This Chaos

Tatoeba

美丽、丑陋、富有、贫穷、强壮和虚弱都是形容词。

Měilì, chǒulòu, fùyǒu, pínqióng, qiángzhuàng hé xūruò dōu shì xíngróngcí.

Beautiful, ugly, rich, poor, strong, and weak are examples of adjectives.

Tatoeba

伯拉罕·林肯,美国第16任总统,生于肯塔基州的一个简陋的小屋里。

Bó lā hǎn · Línkěn, Měiguó dì 16 rèn zǒngtǒng, shēng yú Kěntǎjīzhōu de yī gè jiǎnlòu de xiǎowū lǐ.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in a log cabin in Kentucky.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 阝 (village) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced lòu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 陋 (lòu) mean in Chinese?
陋 (lòu) primarily means "low." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2533 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 陋 and 第?
陋 (lòu) and 第 (dì) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 陋 (low) vs 第 (high).
How many strokes does 陋 have?
陋 is written with 8 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 陋?
The radical associated with 陋 is 阝 (mound). This radical appears in many characters related to mound.
What are the components of 陋?
陋 is composed of: 阝 (semantic), 乚 (structural), 丙 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰阝⿺乚丙 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 陋?
Common words with 陋 include: 丑陋 (chǒu lòu, "ugly"); 简陋 (jiǎn lòu, "simple and crude"); 陋习 (lòu xí, "corrupt practice"); 孤陋寡闻 (gū lòu guǎ wén, "ignorant and inexperienced"); 粗陋 (cū lòu, "crude"). There are over 18 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 陋 (lòu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lòu: 楼 (building, floor), 漏 (to leak), 搂 (to draw towards oneself). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 陋 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 陋 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 陋 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.