(): dried meat, also pr., ancient practice of offering sacrifices to the gods in the 12th lunar month

() is a Chinese character meaning “dried meat.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1488 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a sacrifice of meat ⺼ for the past year 昔. Its radical form (meat) appears in many related characters such as (ròu, meat), (néng, can), (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. dried meat
  2. also pr.
  3. ancient practice of offering sacrifices to the gods in the 12th lunar month

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA sacrifice of meat ⺼ for the past year 昔

Decomposition: ⿰⺼昔 (layout: left-right)

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

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
xī làGreece
là chángsausage
là ròumeat that has been cured and air-dried in the cold (esp. during the 12th lunar month)
là yuètwelfth lunar month
sū mén dá làvariant of 蘇門答臘|苏门答腊[Su1 men2 da2 la4]
xī là zì mǔGreek alphabet
xī là wénGreek literature
sū mén dá làSumatra, one of the Indonesian islands
gǔ xī là yǔAncient Greek (language)
sū mén dá là dǎoSumatra (one of the Indonesian islands)
fāng làFang La
xī là yǔGreek language
là bā jiéLaba rice porridge festival, on the 8th day of the 12th lunar month
gǔ xī làancient Greece
zhēn làKhmer kingdom of Kampuchea or Cambodia
24
Total compounds
29
As first character
33
As last character
38
As middle character

appears in 24 compound words: 29 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 38 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.

0.755134,921 co-occurrences
0.51922,743 co-occurrences
0.47219,464 co-occurrences
0.4644,458 co-occurrences
cháng
0.432696 co-occurrences
huà
0.4053,210 co-occurrences
0.3964,632 co-occurrences
zhōu
0.384222 co-occurrences
mén
0.3764,674 co-occurrences
lóng
0.375552 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

cán dōng là yuèHSK 7+

final days of the lunar year

phrase
Gǔ XīlàyǔHSK 7+

Ancient Greek (language)

SūméndálàHSK 7+

Alternative name for 蘇門答臘/苏门答腊 (Sūméndálà, “Sumatra”).

SūméndálàHSK 7+

Sumatra (the largest island entirely in Indonesia and the world’s sixth largest island)

xī là zì mǔHSK 7+

Greek alphabet

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字的写法很特别,让我印象深刻。

xī zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The character "腊" has a very distinctive way of being written, which left a deep impression on me.

InvestingFeb 2026

股市上涨;截至收盘Athens Gene...

xī xī gǔ shì shàng zhǎng ; jié zhì shōu pán A t h e n s G e n e . . .

Greece stocks higher at close of trade; Athens Gene...

百度新闻Feb 2026

全国出租车司机举行罢工

xī xī quán guó chū zū chē sī jī jǔ háng bà gōng

Taxi drivers across Greece are on strike

Tatoeba

奥林匹斯山? 那不是希众神鬼混的地方?

ào lín pǐ sī shān? nà bù shì Xīlà zhòng shén guǐhùn de dìfang?

Olympus? Isn't that where Greek gods hang out or something?

Tatoeba

阿尔法、贝塔和咖玛是希文字。

ā'ěrfǎ, bèitǎ hé gāmǎ shì Xīlà wénzì.

Alpha, beta and gamma are Greek letters.

Tatoeba

汤姆喜欢希酸奶。

Tāngmǔ xǐhuan Xīlà suānnǎi.

Tom likes Greek yogurt.

Tatoeba

在希神话中,阿瑞斯是战争之神。

Zài Xīlà shénhuà zhōng, āruìsī shì zhànzhēng zhī shén.

In Greek mythology, Ares was the god of war.

Tatoeba

人以前是信奉多神的民族。

Xīlàrén yǐqián shì xìnfèng duō shén de mínzú.

The Greeks used to worship several gods.

Tatoeba

这个字是希语衍生出来的。

Zhège zì shì Xīlàyǔ yǎnshēng chūlái de.

This word is derived from Greek.

Tatoeba

我了解了很多希的文化。

Wǒ liǎojiě le hěn duō Xīlà de wénhuà.

I learned a lot about Greek culture.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 腊 (xī) mean in Chinese?
腊 (xī) primarily means "dried meat." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1488 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 腊 have?
腊 is written with 14 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 腊?
The radical associated with 腊 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 腊?
腊 is composed of: ⺼ (structural), 昔 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰⺼昔 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 腊?
Common words with 腊 include: 希腊 (xī là, "Greece"); 腊肠 (là cháng, "sausage"); 腊肉 (là ròu, "meat that has been cured and air-dried in the cold (esp. during the 12th lunar month)"); 腊月 (là yuè, "twelfth lunar month"); 苏门达腊 (sū mén dá là, "variant of 蘇門答臘|苏门答腊[Su1 men2 da2 la4]"). There are over 24 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 腊 (xī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xī: 吸 (to breathe), 西 (the West), 希 (to hope), 息 (breath), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 腊 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 腊 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.