HSK 3 · Places

楼 lóu “story” in Chinese

Traditional 樓

What 楼 means

  1. story
  2. floor
  3. multi-story building
  4. house with more than 1 story
  5. storied building

Measure word 层 céng or 座 zuò · 一层楼 yì céng lóu

How to say 楼

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale楼lóu2nd tone, rising

楼 in a sentence

  1. 我在这栋楼里工作。

    Wǒ zài zhè dòng lóu lǐ gōngzuò.

    I work in this building.

    Sentence #7773207 from Tatoeba

  2. 你住在哪层楼？

    Nǐ zhù zài nǎ céng lóu?

    Which floor do you live on?

    Sentence #9419166 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 图书馆在楼上。

    Túshūguǎn zài lóushàng.

    The library is upstairs.

    Sentence #8932580 from Tatoeba

How 楼 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 楼 (lóu) with each of its parts in a different colour
楼lóuhouse with more than 1 story
  • 木tree · mùMeaning part
  • 娄a constellation · LóuSound part

木 hints at the meaning (tree); 娄 (Lóu) hints at the sound. Compare it with lóu.

How to write 楼

楼 13 strokes

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

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

Words related to 楼

Words with 楼

楼梯lóutī · stairs

More words: Places & Directions

附近fùjìn · nearby国家guójiā · country黄河huánghé · Yellow River街道jiēdào · street南nán · South世界shìjiè · world图书馆túshūguǎn · library西xī · West

FAQs

楼 (lóu) means “story” or “floor”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it lóu: lóu with a 2nd 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, 楼 is written 樓. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 层 (céng) or 座 (zuò). For example, one story is 一层楼 (yì céng lóu).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type lou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 楼 from the suggestions. Typing lou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
楼 is an HSK 3 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.