虏 (lǔ): prisoner of war, to capture, to take prisoner

虏 (lǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “prisoner of war.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 虍 (phonetic) and 力 (semantic). It ranks #2391 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 虏 strength. Its radical form 虍 (tiger) appears in many related characters such as 虑 (lǜ, to think over), 虎 (hǔ, tiger), 虚 (xū, emptiness).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 虍 tiger8 strokesFrequency #2391虍 phonetic力 semantic

Definitions

  1. prisoner of war
  2. to capture
  3. to take prisoner

Etymology & Origin

虏

pictophoneticstrength

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

Components:虍phonetic力semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
俘虏fú lǔcaptive
亡国虏wáng guó lǔsubjugated people
蒂森克虏伯dì sēn kè lǔ bóThyssenKrupp
克虏伯kè lǔ bóKrupp
驱除鞑虏qū chú dá lǔexpel the Manchu, revolutionary slogan from around 1900
虏获lǔ huòcapture (people)
捕虏岩bǔ lǔ yánxenolith (geology)
鞑虏dá lǔTartar (derogatory)
臣虏chén lǔslave
9
Total compounds
11
As first character
56
As last character
33
As middle character

虏 appears in 9 compound words: 11 as the first character, 56 as the last, and 33 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 虏 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

俘fú
0.81033,462 co-occurrences
征zhēng
0.4633,576 co-occurrences
赎shú
0.437252 co-occurrences
军jūn
0.4369,162 co-occurrences
斩zhǎn
0.430438 co-occurrences
将jiāng
0.4024,812 co-occurrences
渗shèn
0.387138 co-occurrences
押yā
0.383534 co-occurrences
伯bó
0.3832,208 co-occurrences
惮dàn
0.37336 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习虏字需要反复练习，才能写得工整。

xué xí lǔ zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Mastering the character "虏" requires repeated practice to write it neatly.

NewtalkApr 2026

...-15E飞官疑遭“山洞设局”活捉 伊曝俘虏照却破绽百出...

. . . 1 5 E fēi guān yí zāo shān dòng shè jú huó zhuō yī pù fú lǔ zhào què pò zhàn bǎi chū . . .

Tatoeba

壮志饥餐胡虏肉，笑谈渴饮匈奴血。待从头、收拾旧山河，朝天阙。

Zhuàngzhì jī cān hú lǔ ròu, xiàotán kě yǐn Xiōngnú xuè. dài cóngtóu, shōushi jiù shānhé, cháotiān quē.

With lofty aspirations, we long to feast on the flesh of the Hu invaders when hungry, and drink the blood of the Xiongnu enemies with laughter when thirsty. Awaiting the day when we can reclaim the lost lands, and present ourselves at the imperial court.

Character Family

虍 Radical Family — Characters sharing the tiger radical

办bàn勃bó动dòng劫jié劲jìn勘kān勒lè励lì勉miǎn募mù

Related Characters

虑lǜ虎hǔ虚xū虐nüè虔qián

Homophones — Characters pronounced lǔ

炉lú陆lù录lù路lù露lù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 虏 (lǔ) mean in Chinese?
虏 (lǔ) primarily means "prisoner of war." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2391 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 虏 and 和?
虏 (lǔ) and 和 (hé) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 虏 (war) vs 和 (peace).
How many strokes does 虏 have?
虏 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 虏?
The radical associated with 虏 is 虍 (tiger). This radical appears in many characters related to tiger.
What are the components of 虏?
虏 is composed of: 虍 (phonetic), 力 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸虍力 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 虏?
Common words with 虏 include: 俘虏 (fú lǔ, "captive"); 亡国虏 (wáng guó lǔ, "subjugated people"); 蒂森克虏伯 (dì sēn kè lǔ bó, "ThyssenKrupp"); 克虏伯 (kè lǔ bó, "Krupp"); 驱除鞑虏 (qū chú dá lǔ, "expel the Manchu, revolutionary slogan from around 1900"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 虏 (lǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lǔ: 炉 (stove), 陆 (six (banker's anti-fraud numeral)), 录 (to carve wood), 路 (road), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 虏 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 虏 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 虏 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

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.