吕 (lǚ): pitchpipe, pitch standard, one of the twelve semitones in the traditional tone system

吕 (lǚ) is a Chinese character meaning “pitchpipe, pitch standard, one of the twelve semitones in the traditional tone system.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (structural) and 口 (structural). It ranks #1700 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 吕 two mouths 口 in harmony. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. pitchpipe, pitch standard, one of the twelve semitones in the traditional tone system

Etymology & Origin

吕

ideographicTwo mouths 口 in harmony

Decomposition: ⿱口口 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:口structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
吕宋岛lǚ sòng dǎoLuzon Island, north Philippines
吕贝克proper-nounlǚ bèi kèLübeck, Germany
狗咬吕洞宾,不识好人心gǒu yǎo lǚ dòng bīn , bù shí hǎo rén xīna dog biting Lü Dongbin (idiom)
萨尔布吕肯sà ěr bù lǚ kěnSaarbrücken, capital of Saarland, Germany
吕不韦lǚ bù wéiLü Buwei (?291-235 BC), merchant and politician of the State of Qin 秦國|秦国, subsequent Qin Dynasty 秦代[Qin2 ...
吕望lǚ wàngsee Jiang Ziya 姜子牙
吕布lǚ bùLü Bu (-198), general and warlord
泽布吕赫zé bù lǚ hèZeebrugge (port city in Belgium)
吕纯阳lǚ chún yángsee 呂洞賓|吕洞宾
律吕nounlǜ lǚtuning
吕梁市lǚ liáng shìLüliang, prefecture-level city in Shanxi Province 山西省
吕嘉民lǚ jiā mínLü Jiamin (1946-) aka Jiang Rong 姜戎, Chinese writer
吕宋海峡proper-nounlǚ sòng hǎi xiáLuzon Strait between Taiwan and Luzon Island (Philippines)
吕氏春秋proper-nounlǚ shì chūn qiūlit. “Mr. Lü's Spring and Autumn (Annals)”, compendium of the philosophies of the Hundred Schools of Thought 諸子百家|诸子百...
吕洞宾proper-nounlǚ dòng bīnLü Dongbin (796-), Tang Dynasty scholar, one of the Eight Immortals 八仙
20
Total compounds
80
As first character
5
As last character
15
As middle character

吕 appears in 20 compound words: 80 as the first character, 5 as the last, and 15 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 吕 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

歇xiē
0.453756 co-occurrences
梁liáng
0.4341,958 co-occurrences
布bù
0.4296,886 co-occurrences
钟zhōng
0.42313 co-occurrences
克kè
0.4137,032 co-occurrences
贝bèi
0.4051,210 co-occurrences
尔ěr
0.4035,096 co-occurrences
昂áng
0.396710 co-occurrences
焕huàn
0.392164 co-occurrences
蒙méng
0.3911,720 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

吕氏春秋LǚshìchūnqiūHSK 7+

Lüshi Chunqiu; Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals

吕宋海峡Lǚsòng HǎixiáHSK 7+

Luzon Strait

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他吕才很好,能言善辩,是个出色的律师。

tā lǚ cái hěn hǎo , néng yán shàn biàn , shì gě chū sè de lǜ shī .

He is exceptionally talented, eloquent, and an outstanding lawyer.

風傳媒Mar 2026

吕绍炜专栏:美伊战争,让那些以为“逝去”的...

lǚ shào 炜 zhuān lán : měi yī zhàn zhēng , ràng nà xiē yǐ wéi shì qù de . . .

Lü Shaowei's Column: The U.S.-Iran War Brings Back What We Thought Was "Gone"...

Am730Mar 2026

Ken Sir吕宇健清仓毛记葵涌 套现2450万元

K e n S i r lǚ yǔ jiàn qīng cāng máo jì 葵 chōng tào xiàn 2 4 5 0 wàn yuán

Ken Sir Lu Yujian Sells Entire Stake in Mao Ji Kwai Chung, Cashing Out HK$24.5 Million

StheadlineMar 2026

...方保养有功 滕丽名做带货工作讲足4个钟 吕慧仪元宵节与家人食饭冇张景淳份

. . . fāng bǎo yǎng yǒu gōng 滕 lí míng zuò dài huò gōng zuò jiǎng zú 4 gè zhōng lǚ huì yí yuán xiāo jié yǔ jiā rén shí fàn 冇 zhāng jǐng chún fèn

... Fang Xiangyi has meritorious service, Teng Liming does the work of bringing goods, and talks for 4 hours, Lu Huiyi has a Lantern Festival and has a meal with her family, and Zhang Jingchun has no share

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

被检举出卖黄吕锦茹 赖苡任曝向考纪会“第一次说出所有内...

bèi jiǎn jǔ chū mài huáng lǚ jǐn 茹 lài 苡 rèn pù xiàng kǎo jì huì dì yī cì shuō chū suǒ yǒu nèi . . .

was reported to betray Huang Lu Jinru Lai Yiren revealed to the Examination and Discipline Committee that "for the first time, all the inside...

LtnFeb 2026

中职》工藤改造的吕彦青首秀“期待以下” 平野惠一解释原因

zhōng zhí gōng téng gǎi zào de lǚ 彦 qīng shǒu xiù qī dài yǐ xià píng yě huì yī jiě shì yuán yīn

"Secondary Vocational School" Kudo transformation's Lu Yanqing's debut "looking forward to the following" Keiichi Hirano explained the reason

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced lǚ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 吕 (lǚ) mean in Chinese?
吕 (lǚ) primarily means "pitchpipe, pitch standard, one of the twelve semitones in the traditional tone system." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1700 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 吕 have?
吕 is written with 6 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 吕?
The radical associated with 吕 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 吕?
吕 is composed of: 口 (structural), 口 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱口口 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 吕?
Common words with 吕 include: 吕宋岛 (lǚ sòng dǎo, "Luzon Island, north Philippines"); 吕贝克 (lǚ bèi kè, "Lübeck, Germany"); 狗咬吕洞宾,不识好人心 (gǒu yǎo lǚ dòng bīn , bù shí hǎo rén xīn, "a dog biting Lü Dongbin (idiom)"); 萨尔布吕肯 (sà ěr bù lǚ kěn, "Saarbrücken, capital of Saarland, Germany"); 吕不韦 (lǚ bù wéi, "Lü Buwei (?291-235 BC), merchant and politician of the State of Qin 秦國|秦国, subsequent Qin Dynasty 秦代[Qin2 ..."). There are over 20 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 吕 (lǚ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lǚ: 律 (law), 率 ((bound form) ratio), 虑 (to think over), 旅 (trip), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 吕 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 吕 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 吕 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.