HSK 6 · Verbs

捞 lāo “to fish out” in Chinese

Traditional 撈

What 捞 means

  1. to fish out
  2. to scoop up
  3. to dredge
  4. to fish up
  5. to dredge up

How to say 捞

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale捞lāo1st tone, high and level

捞 in a sentence

  1. 这好比大海捞针。

    Zhè hǎobǐ dàhǎi lāo zhēn.

    It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.

    Sentence #5091981 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 船的残骸从海底被打捞上来。

    Chuán de cánhái cóng hǎidǐ bèi dǎlāo shànglai.

    The wreckage of the ship was salvaged from the seabed.

    Sentence #2456079 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 捞 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 捞 (lāo) with each of its parts in a different colour
捞lāoto fish up
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒuMeaning part
  • 劳to labour · láoSound part

扌 hints at the meaning (hand); 劳 (láo) hints at the sound. Compare it with lāo.

How to write 捞

捞 10 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

捞 (lāo) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 捞 (lāo). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 捞

More words: Common Verbs

捆绑kǔnbǎng · to tie up扩充kuòchōng · to expand扩散kuòsàn · to spread扩张kuòzhāng · to expand晾liàng · to dry in the air or sun淋lín · to drench领先lǐngxiān · to lead力求lìqiú · to strive to

FAQs

捞 (lāo) means “to fish out” or “to scoop up”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it lāo: lāo with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 捞 is written 撈. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type lao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 捞 from the suggestions. Typing lao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
捞 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.