Where 肉 comes from
Meat on the ribs of an animal
How to write 肉 (ròu, “meat”)
肉 (ròu), an HSK 2 character, means “meat”, “flesh” and “pulp”. It is HSK 2 in the 2025 syllabus, up from level 1 in the 2021 standard. It is a picture-like character. On its own it is an HSK 2 word; it also forms 肌肉 (“muscle”), 人肉 (“to crowdsource information about sb or sth”) and 元肉 (“dried longan pulp”). Japanese reads it niku, “meat”, as a JLPT N4 kanji.
- Pinyin
- ròu
- Strokes
- 6
- HSK
- 2
- Radical
- 肉 (“meat”)
Stroke by stroke
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
As an overlapping character it splits into 冂 (“wide”), strokes 1–2; 仌 (“frozen”), strokes 3–6, written the first part first.
- Vertical ㇑top leftdownwards
- Horizontal-turn-hook ㇆top leftrightwards → downwards
- Left-falling stroke ㇒topdown and left
- Dot ㇔topdown and right
- Left-falling stroke ㇒centerdownwards → down and left
- Dot ㇔centerdown and right
Japanese and Chinese
Japanese and Chinese draw all 6 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.
Trace it
Follow the numbers. Tracing help
Pinyin and meaning
| Pinyin | Meanings | Traditional | In words |
|---|---|---|---|
| ròu fourth tone | meat; flesh; pulp (of a fruit); (coll.) (of a fruit) squashy; (of a person) flabby | — | 肌肉 人肉 元肉 多肉 |
- HSK 2025 syllabus
- level 2
- 2021 standard
- level 1
- HSK 2.0
- in a level 2 word
- Words with it
- 196 in CC-CEDICT
Words with 肉
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 肉 | ròu | meat; flesh HSK 2 |
| 肌肉 | jīròu | muscle; flesh HSK 5 |
| 人肉 | rénròu | to crowdsource information about sb or sth… |
| 元肉 | yuánròu | dried longan pulp |
| 多肉 | duōròu | fleshy; meaty |
| 大肉 | dàròu | pork |
| 息肉 | xīròu | (medicine) polyp |
| 果肉 | guǒròu | the flesh of a fruit; pulp |
| 牛肉 | niúròu | beef |
| 狗肉 | gǒuròu | dog meat |
HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).
Practice sheet
Print at 100%. Several characters: worksheet maker.
Keep going
HSK 2, in list order: