列 (liè) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

列

liè[lie4]Tone 4

to arrange, line up, column, row

HSK 4

Guru Deep Dive

English · to arrange, line up, column, row

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:6

Writing Balance Rule: Keep the left component (歹) narrow and compact on the left half, and allocate slightly more horizontal space for the right component (刂 / 刀) to maintain balanced symmetry.

1. Meaning

to arrange or line up in order

file or seriescolumn in data tablesrow (specifically in Taiwan usage)

Verb / NounNeutral#order#arrangement#structure#lists

Sample Usage

请把这些书按大小顺序排列。
Qǐng bǎ zhèxiē shū àn dàxiǎo shùnxù páiliè.
Please arrange these books in order of size.
这个表格有五列数据。
Zhège biǎogé yǒu wǔ liè shùjù.
This table has five columns of data.

2. Sound

/[ljɛ⁵¹]/Tone: 51

列

lièlie4

`(51)

=liè

Initial Consonant

Type: Alveolar Lateral

Sounds like: l sound

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Air flows freely around both sides of tongue.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge right behind the upper front teeth.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -e vowel group

Sounds like: -yeh sound

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'yeh'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T4 (51)

5 → 1 (51)

4th Tone (High-Falling)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 (sharp falling 51) matches an emphatic command or sudden realization in English.

👂

Listening trap: Do not confuse with Tone 2 (lié) or Tone 3 (liě). The sharp downward pitch contour is essential.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Tone 4 starts high and drops sharply to the bottom, like nodding 'Yes!' in agreement or cutting down firmly with a hand chop.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 6 strokes

4. Components

Radical 刂 · Knife Radical (knife, cutting, dividing)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 刂 (Indicates cutting, dividing, or neatly separating items into lines.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 歹 (original sound: liè / dǎi root sound element)

Composed of 歹 (bad, decaying bones) on the left and 刂 (knife) on the right. Imagine using a sharp knife to carve or neatly line up pieces of bone in a row.

歹 Framework / phonetic element (originally related to bones)
刂 Knife radical indicating separation or ordering

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

8· Phonetic Root: 列 (liè)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally created with a knife cutting bones or items apart to categorize and divide them into separate rows or files.

Semantic Evolution: From the physical action of cutting and dividing items into distinct parts, it evolved to mean arranging, lining up, series, and columns in tables.

In ancient times, records were carved into strips of bamboo, which were bound together in rows or series (列).

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

liệt

corresponds to the nặng tone in Vietnamese.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: レツ

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

열

Sound Shift Bridge: Shared East Asian literary root with predictable correspondences in Vietnamese (liệt) and Japanese (retsu).

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

With a sharp knife (刂), you carve up skeletal remains (歹) and arrange them neatly in a straight file or column on your desk.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

烈

lièfiery, intenseAdd fire (灬) at the bottom to mean intense heat or fierce flames.

例

lìexample, precedentAdd person radical (亻) on the left to indicate an example set by people.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

烈(liè)

列 has a knife on the right; 烈 has fire (灬) at the bottom.

例(lì)

列 has bones/bad (歹) on the left; 例 has the person radical (亻).

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

老师把全班同学按照身高排成了一[___]。

Clue: liè

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the right-side knife radical (刂) with similar standalone components, or mixing up '列' with '烈' due to identical pinyin pronunciations.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see '列' in a data table context, what does it mean?

Production: How do you write the character meaning 'to arrange or line up' (liè)?

列lièto arrange, line up, column, row

Speed:

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