(): road

() is a Chinese character meaning “road.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #305 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, foot. Its radical form (foot) appears in many related characters such as (pǎo, to run), (gēn, follow, heel), (, foot).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. road

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticfoot

Decomposition: ⿰足各 (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

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounlù shangon the road2
noun/adverbyī lùthe whole journey5
noungōng lùhighway4
verbzǒu lùto walk2
noundào lùroad4
verbmí lùto lose the way5
线nounlù xiànitinerary5
verblù guòto pass by or through4
线nounxiàn lù(electricity) line5
nounlù biāncurb3
nounmǎ lùstreet3
nountiě lùrailroad5
nounlù kǒucrossing3
nounlù chéngroute6
nounsī lùline of thought6
yī lù shùn fēngto have a pleasant journey (idiom)5
shí zì lù kǒucrossroads4
nounlù rénpasser-by5
nounlù miànroad surface6
nounlù kuàngroad condition(s) (e.g. surface, traffic flow etc)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
chū lùa way out (lit. and fig.)
lù zhàngroadblock
lù yì(name) Louis
dài lùto lead the way
dǎng lùto be in the way
diàn lùelectric circuit
duǎn lùshort circuit
gǎn lùto hasten on with one's journey
bàn lùhalfway
lù jìngpath
dà lùavenue
kāi lùto open up a path
100
Total compounds
49
As first character
49
As last character
2
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 49 as the first character, 49 as the last, and 2 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.

tiě
0.688662,894 co-occurrences
线xiàn
0.600547,608 co-occurrences
duàn
0.524371,454 co-occurrences
dào
0.508619,266 co-occurrences
chā
0.50659,268 co-occurrences
0.498238,212 co-occurrences
gōng
0.481739,998 co-occurrences
0.478165,000 co-occurrences
chà
0.46815,927 co-occurrences
kǒu
0.456345,600 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (27)

bìyóuzhīlùHSK 4+

the path that must be taken; the only way

phrase
fēnghuílùzhuǎnHSK 6+

to see a turn for the better

phrase
广guǎng jiǔ tiě lùHSK 4+

Guangdong and Kowloon railway

phrase
lùbùshíyíHSK 5+

Used to describe good social ethos.

phrase
LùdéwéixīHSK 6+

a transliteration of the German male given name Ludwig

qīngchēshúlùHSK 4+

to perform a task with which one is very familiar with great ease

phrase
qióng jiā fù lùHSK 5+

(idiom) at home be frugal, but when traveling be prepared to spend

phrase
qióngtúmòlùHSK 5+

to be very poor or desperate; to be back to the wall

phrase
qūyù wǎnglùHSK 5+

local area network; LAN

noun
线qúnzhòng lùxiànHSK 5+

mass line

noun
shí zì lù kǒuHSK 2+

crossroads; intersection

phrase
shúménshúlùHSK 4+

to know something very well; to be very familiar with something

phrase

Showing 12 of 27 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这条正在施工,请绕道行驶。

Zhè tiáo lù zhèngzài shīgōng, qǐng ràodào xíngshǐ.

This road is under construction; please take a detour.

百度新闻Feb 2026

一文回顾徐梦桃冬奥会风雪卫冕:16年间参加5届奥..

yī wén huí gù xú mèng táo dōng ào huì fēng xuě wèi 冕 lù nián jiān cān jiā jiè ào . .

An article review Xu Mengtao winter Olympic wind and snow defense road: 16 years to participate in five o...

百度新闻Feb 2026

川AG大军注意!雅西高速成都往西昌方向多段车多缓..

chuān dà jūn zhù yì ! yǎ xī gāo sù chéng dū wǎng xī chāng fāng xiàng duō lù duàn chē duō huǎn . .

Sichuan AG army attention! Yaxi Expressway, Chengdu to Xichang direction of many sections of the traffic slow ...

百度新闻Feb 2026

走来,到了春节!上海静安祝您龙马精神、马...

yī lù zǒu lái , dào le chūn jié ! shǎng hǎi jìng ān zhù nín lóng mǎ jīng shén mǎ . . .

All the way to Chinese New Year! Shanghai Jing'an wishes you the best of luck in your endeavors...

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层丨护送万千乡愁 奔赴团圆之

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng 丨 hù sòng mò qiān xiāng chóu bēn fù tuán yuán zhī lù

New Year walk grassroots 丨 escort thousands of nostalgia to the reunion road

百度新闻Feb 2026

年初二全国高速公流量快速回升,午后车流持续保持高..

nián chū èr quán guó gāo sù gōng lù liú liáng kuài sù huí shēng , wǔ hòu chē liú chí xù bǎo chí gāo . .

Traffic volume on national expressways rebounded rapidly on the second day of the Lunar New Year, with high levels persisting throughout the afternoon.

Tatoeba

能否告诉我去车站的怎么走?

Néngfǒu gàosu wǒqù chēzhàn de lù zěnme zǒu?

Could you tell me the way to the station?

Tatoeba

他走去学校还是骑车去学校?

Tā zǒulù qù xuéxiào háishi qíchē qù xuéxiào?

Does he go to school on foot or by bicycle?

Tatoeba

我迷了,能不能请您帮我一下?

Wǒ mílù le, néngbùnéng qǐng nín bāng wǒ yīxià?

I am lost. Can you help me, please?

Tatoeba

你不介意的上捡东西回来?

Nǐ bù jièyì de lùshang jiǎn dōngxi huílai?

Would you mind picking up something on the way back?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 路 (lù) mean in Chinese?
路 (lù) primarily means "road." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #305 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 路 and 格?
路 (lù) and 格 (gé) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 足 vs 木 (same 各 component).
How many strokes does 路 have?
路 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 路?
The radical associated with 路 is 足 (foot). This radical appears in many characters related to foot.
What are the components of 路?
路 is composed of: 足 (semantic), 各 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰足各 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 路?
Common words with 路 include: 路上 (lù shang, "on the road"); 一路 (yī lù, "the whole journey"); 公路 (gōng lù, "highway"); 走路 (zǒu lù, "to walk"); 道路 (dào lù, "road"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 路 (lù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lù: 芦 (rush), 炉 (stove), 陆 (six (banker's anti-fraud numeral)). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 路 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 路 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.