螺 (luó): spiral shell, snail, conch

螺 (luó) is a Chinese character meaning “spiral shell.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 虫 (semantic) and 累 (phonetic). It ranks #2313 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 螺 insect. Its radical form 虫 (insect) appears in many related characters such as 蛋 (dàn, egg), 虽 (suī, although), 虫 (chóng, insect).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. spiral shell
  2. snail
  3. conch

Etymology & Origin

螺

pictophoneticinsect

Decomposition: ⿰虫累 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
螺丝nounluó sīscrew
螺旋nounluó xuánspiral
陀螺nountuó luóspinning top
螺丝刀nounluó sī dāoscrewdriver
螺旋桨nounluó xuán jiǎngpropeller
螺栓nounluó shuānbolt (male component of nut and bolt)
螺钉nounluó dīngscrew
螺丝钉nounluó sī dīngscrew
海螺nounhǎi luósea snail
螺母nounluó mǔnut (female component of nut and bolt)
螺纹nounluó wénspiral pattern
螺帽nounluó màonut (female component of nut and bolt)
螺旋体nounluó xuán tǐSpirochaetes, phylum of extremophile bacteria
鹦鹉螺nounyīng wǔ luónautilus
螺旋藻nounluó xuán zǎospiral algae
61
Total compounds
56
As first character
16
As last character
28
As middle character

螺 appears in 61 compound words: 56 as the first character, 16 as the last, and 28 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 螺 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

桨jiǎng
0.7023,364 co-occurrences
旋xuán
0.68124,027 co-occurrences
栓shuān
0.6131,564 co-occurrences
钉dīng
0.558710 co-occurrences
拧níng
0.53091 co-occurrences
纹wén
0.468926 co-occurrences
丝sī
0.437822 co-occurrences
臂bì
0.435642 co-occurrences
杆gān
0.430548 co-occurrences
轴zhóu
0.430712 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

螺丝起子luósī qǐziHSK 7+

screwdriver

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个螺字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

zhè gě luó zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .

The character "螺" had different meanings in Classical Chinese.

三立新聞網Mar 2026

58岁男鼻腔流脓飘异味 3公分螺丝卡40年

5 8 suì nán bí qiāng liú 脓 piāo yì wèi 3 gōng fēn luó sī kǎ 4 0 nián

58-Year-Old Man Experiences Foul-Smelling Nasal Discharge; 3-Centimeter Screw Found to Have Been Lodged for 40 Years

99 健康网Feb 2026

最适合夫妻长期避孕药有哪些?含屈螺酮的短效药安全性如何

zuì shì gě fū qī cháng qī bì yùn yào yǒu nǎ xiē ? hán qū luó 酮 de duǎn xiào yào ān quán xìng rú hé

What are the best long-term contraceptives for couples? How safe are drospirenone-containing short-acting drugs?

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

哈伯望远镜进入死亡螺旋?专家指高度下降变快 不维修恐这时坠回...

hā bó wàng yuǎn jìng jìn rù sǐ wáng luó xuán ? zhuān jiā zhǐ gāo dù xià jiàng biàn kuài bù wéi xiū kǒng zhè shí zhuì huí . . .

Hubble telescope enters death spiral? Experts say that the altitude drops faster, and if you don't repair it, you may fall back at this time...

Investing 香港Feb 2026

海螺材料科技(02560):宁波海螺新材料拟...

hǎi luó cái liào kē jì ( 0 2 5 6 0 ) : nìng bō hǎi luó xīn cái liào nǐ . . .

Conch Material Technology (02560): Ningbo Conch New Materials Intended...

EtnetFeb 2026

海螺水泥(00914)控股股东海螺集团将斥不...

hǎi luó shuǐ ní ( 0 0 9 1 4 ) kòng gǔ gǔ dōng hǎi luó jí tuán jiāng chì bù . . .

Conch Cement (00914) controlling shareholder Conch Group will reprimand...

Tatoeba

螺栓我找到了,螺帽在哪里?

Luóshuān wǒ zhǎodào le, luómào zài nǎlǐ?

I've got the bolts. Where are the nuts?

Tatoeba

蜗牛壳是螺旋形的.

Wōniúké shì luóxuánxíng de.

A snail's shell is spiral in form.

Tatoeba

现在你只要拧紧螺丝,就大功告成了。

Xiànzài nǐ zhǐyào níng jǐn luósī, jiù dàgōnggàochéng le.

Now all you have to do is tighten the screw, and Bob's your uncle.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 虫 (insect) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced luó

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 螺 (luó) mean in Chinese?
螺 (luó) primarily means "spiral shell." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2313 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 螺 have?
螺 is written with 17 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 螺?
The radical associated with 螺 is 虫 (insect). This radical appears in many characters related to insect.
What are the components of 螺?
螺 is composed of: 虫 (semantic), 累 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰虫累 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 螺?
Common words with 螺 include: 螺丝 (luó sī, "screw"); 螺旋 (luó xuán, "spiral"); 陀螺 (tuó luó, "spinning top"); 螺丝刀 (luó sī dāo, "screwdriver"); 螺旋桨 (luó xuán jiǎng, "propeller"). There are over 61 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 螺 (luó)?
Several characters share the pronunciation luó: 罗 (gauze), 落 (to fall, to drop), 络 (net-like object), 逻 (patrol), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 螺 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 螺 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 螺 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.