涝 (lào) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

涝

lào[lao4]Tone 4

flooded

HSK 7

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澇

Guru Deep Dive

English · flooded

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:10

Writing Balance Rule: The left water radical (氵) takes up about one-third of the width, while the right phonetic component (劳) occupies the remaining two-thirds with a stable base.

Simplification Logic: The traditional character 澇 uses the exact same simplified right-side component 劳 as its traditional counterpart 勞.

1. Meaning

waterlogged, flooded, inundation caused by heavy rain

drought and flood (旱涝)

Adjective / NounNeutralBound morpheme#weather#natural disasters#water

Sample Usage

今年雨水多，庄稼受了涝。
jīnnián yǔshuǐ duō, zhuāngjia shòule lào.
There is a lot of rain this year, and the crops suffered from waterlogging.
防汛抗涝是当前的重要工作。
fángxùn kànglào shì dāngqián de zhòngyào gōngzuò.
Flood prevention and waterlogging drainage are important tasks at present.

2. Sound

/[lɑʊ̯⁵¹]/Tone: 51

涝

làolao4

`(51)

=lào

Build the syllable

Step-by-step blending

lao

Tone mark placement: Tone mark sits on "a" per main-vowel priority (a > e > o; in -iu/-ui the mark takes the second vowel).

Initial Consonant

Type: Alveolar Lateral

Sounds like: l sound as in 'love'

Unaspirated

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

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

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: ao rhymes with ow in 'cow'

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

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 starts high and drops abruptly, like a firm command or saying 'No!' in English.

Sandhi: When followed by another Tone 4 syllable, the dipping start can be slightly compressed, but the sharp falling contour remains distinct.

👂

Listening trap: Do not confuse with Tone 3 lǎo (old), which dips low and rises; lào starts high and falls sharply.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A sharp karate chop starting high and plunging straight down to signal the falling drop of Tone 4.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 10 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left water radical (氵) takes up about one-third of the width, while the right phonetic component (劳) occupies the remaining two-thirds with a stable base.

Simplification Logic: The traditional character 澇 uses the exact same simplified right-side component 劳 as its traditional counterpart 勞.

4. Components

Radical 氵 · Water Radical (Water, liquids, rivers, floods)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 氵 (Indicates water, floods, and moisture-related disasters)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 劳 (original sound: láo)

Too much water (氵) causes endless toil and labor (劳) for farmers trying to bail out their flooded fields.

氵 Water / Flood
劳 Labor / Toil (provides the sound láo)

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

8· Phonetic Root: 劳 (láo)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Combined from the signific 氵 (water) and the phonetic 劳 (láo, toil), reflecting the backbreaking labor required to manage agricultural floods.

Semantic Evolution: Originally referred to standing water and inundation, later expanded to describe agricultural crop damage due to excess rainwater and general waterlogging.

Flood control (防汛抗涝) has been a paramount administrative duty for Chinese dynasties since ancient times due to monsoon patterns.

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: ロウ (rō)

Sound Shift Bridge: The phonetic root láo maps across similar liquid-initial structures.

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

When the fields are FLOODED (lào) with too much WATER (氵), the farmers have to engage in exhausting LABOR (劳) to save their crops.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

劳

láotoil, labor, fatiguePhonetic Core (声旁)

唠

láoused in 嘮叨|唠叨[lao2 dao5]+ 口 (mouth)

捞

lāoto fish up, to dredge up+ 扌 (hand)

崂

láoname of a mountain in Shandong+ 山 (mountain)

Explore this family →

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

捞(lāo)

捞 has Tone 1 and means to scoop or dredge up, whereas lào (涝) has Tone 4 and means flooded/waterlogged.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

今年夏天的暴雨导致许多农田受___。

Clue: lào

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the tone with Tone 3 lǎo (old) or misapplying the phonetic 劳 with wrong tones.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What disaster does 涝 represent when combined with water (氵)?

Production: How do you write the character for 'flooded' (lào) using the water radical and the labor component?

涝làoflooded

Speed:

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