(luò): to fall, to drop

(luò) is a Chinese character meaning “to fall, to drop.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #496 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, plant. Its radical form (grass) appears in many related characters such as (huā, flower), (chá, tea), (cài, vegetable, dish).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to fall, to drop

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticplant

Decomposition: ⿱艹洛 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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
verbjiàng luòto descend4
nounjiǎo luòcorner (of a room, courtyard etc)6
verb/adjectiveluò hòuto fall behind6
verbluò dìto fall to the ground6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
bù luòtribe
duò luòto degrade
rì luòsundown
luò rùto fall into
dī luòdowncast
jī luòto shoot down (a plane)
lún luòto degenerate
luò wǔto fall behind the ranks
là kòngto omit
diào luòto fall down
luò jiǎoto stay for a time
cūn luòvillage
luò shuǐto fall into water
luò lèito shed tears
lì luoagile
100
Total compounds
57
As first character
43
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 57 as the first character, 43 as the last, and 0 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.

0.624115,032 co-occurrences
zuò
0.56569,318 co-occurrences
shuāi
0.55134,139 co-occurrences
duò
0.5166,138 co-occurrences
zhuì
0.5008,787 co-occurrences
jiàng
0.49469,234 co-occurrences
diē
0.4669,948 co-occurrences
0.4644,068 co-occurrences
diào
0.46319,122 co-occurrences
sǎn
0.4433,534 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (27)

ānjiāluòhùHSK 4+

to set up home in a new place; to settle in a new place

phrase
bùluòsútàoHSK 5+

to conform to no conventional pattern; to depart from convention; to be unconventional or offbeat

phrase
chényúluòyànHSK 7+

extremely beautiful; drop-dead gorgeous

phrase
cǐqǐbǐluòHSK 5+

rising and falling; continuous; unceasing

phrase
cuòluòyǒuzhìHSK 5+

irregularly arranged but charming

phrase
dǎluòshuǐgǒuHSK 4+

to hit an enemy when he is down or defeated

phrase
diūsānlàsìHSK 4+

to be forgetful

phrase
gào yī duànluòHSK 4+

to end; to finish

verb
guāshúdìluòHSK 7+

things naturally succeed once a suitable time has arrived and conditions are met

phrase
guāngmínglěiluòHSK 7+

righteous and upright

phrase
luòhuāng'értáoHSK 7+

to flee after being defeated

phrase
luòjǐngxiàshíHSK 6+

to kick someone when they are down

phrase

Showing 12 of 27 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

秋天到了,树叶开始下。

Qiūtiān dào le, shùyè kāishǐ luòxià.

Autumn has arrived; leaves are starting to fall.

百度新闻Feb 2026

8名中国游客在贝加尔湖水,目前仅1人获救

míng zhōng guó yóu kè zài bèi jiā ěr hú luò shuǐ , mù qián jǐn rén huò jiù

Eight Chinese tourists fell into Lake Baikal, with only one rescued so far.

百度新闻Feb 2026

地上海就过年,浦东机场打造多元场景“新年...

luò dì shàng hǎi jiù guò nián , pǔ dōng jī chǎng dǎ zào duō yuán chǎng jǐng xīn nián . . .

Land in Shanghai and the New Year begins—Pudong Airport creates diverse New Year scenes...

百度新闻Feb 2026

苏翊鸣回应颁奖仪式上泪,只有金牌才能升国旗奏国歌..

sū 翊 míng huí yīng bān jiǎng yí shì shǎng luò lèi , zhī yǒu jīn pái cái néng shēng guó qí zòu guó gē . .

Su Yiming responded to the award ceremony in tears, only gold medals to raise the national flag and play the national anthem...

百度新闻Feb 2026

笑着起飞的苏翊鸣,地后哭了

xiào zhe qǐ fēi de sū 翊 míng , luò dì hòu kū le

Su Yiming took off with a smile on his face, but cried when he landed.

百度新闻Feb 2026

南阳一马戏团女演员高空表演不慎坠,目击者称其坚持..

nán yáng yī mǎ xì tuán nǚ yǎn yuán gāo kōng biǎo yǎn bù shèn zhuì luò , mù jī zhě chèn qí jiān chí . .

Nanyang, a circus performer accidentally fell from a high altitude performance, witnesses said it insisted...

Tatoeba

你确定汤姆后这个?

Nǐ quèdìng Tāngmǔ luòhòu zhège?

Are you sure that Tom is behind this?

Tatoeba

一块岩石从上面下。

Yī kuài yánshí cóng shàngmiàn luòxià.

A rock fell from above.

Tatoeba

雨天让我情绪低

Yǔtiān ràng wǒ qíngxù dīluò.

Rainy days make me depressed.

Tatoeba

房间的角里整整齐齐地放着一叠书。

Fángjiān de jiǎoluò lǐ zhěngzhěng-qíqí de fàng zhe yī dié shū.

There was a neat pile of books in the corner of the room.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced luò

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 落 (luò) mean in Chinese?
落 (luò) primarily means "to fall, to drop." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #496 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 落 and 起?
落 (luò) and 起 (qǐ) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 落 (fall) vs 起 (rise).
How many strokes does 落 have?
落 is written with 12 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 落?
The radical associated with 落 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 落?
落 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 洛 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹洛 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 落?
Common words with 落 include: 部落 (bù luò, "tribe"); 降落 (jiàng luò, "to descend"); 角落 (jiǎo luò, "corner (of a room, courtyard etc)"); 堕落 (duò luò, "to degrade"); 落后 (luò hòu, "to fall behind"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 落 (luò)?
Several characters share the pronunciation luò: 罗 (gauze), 萝 (radish), 逻 (patrol), 螺 (spiral shell), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 落 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 落 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.