涝 (lào) is a Chinese character meaning “waterlogging”. It is written from 氵 (water (left-side form)) and 劳 (labor; toil), side by side, and takes 10 strokes.
Build the character for “waterlogging”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
氵 + 劳
Left–right structure
Structure from: 说文解字（澇，水。出扶風鄠，北入渭。从水，勞聲）；hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验（⿰氵劳，3+7=10 笔）
Memory aid
Water (氵) beside 劳 "toil": after heavy rain, farmers toil to drain the water that floods their fields — waterlogging.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
10 strokes
In real words
- 洪涝hóng làofloods and waterlogging涝 = lào
- 内涝nèi làowaterlogging (rainwater that cannot drain away, e.g. in a city or low fields)涝 = lào
Go deeper
All readings
waterlogging; flooded fields
waterlogging; (of crops or land) flooded by excess rainwater; also, water that collects in low-lying fields
雨水过多、积水排不出去而淹没庄稼或低洼地，如内涝、洪涝；也指田地里的积水。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 洪涝hóng làofloods and waterlogging涝 = lào
- 内涝nèi làowaterlogging (rainwater that cannot drain away, e.g. in a city or low fields)涝 = lào
Sound component
劳 family tone diff
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 涝 mean?
涝 (lào) means waterlogging; (of crops or land) flooded by excess rainwater; also, water that collects in low-lying fields.
How do you pronounce 涝?
It is pronounced lào.
What parts is 涝 made of?
氵 (water (left-side form)) and 劳 (labor; toil), side by side. The recorded source is: 说文解字（澇，水。出扶風鄠，北入渭。从水，勞聲）；hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验（⿰氵劳，3+7=10 笔）. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 涝 have?
10. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 涝?
水. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 涝?
Common ones are 洪涝 and 内涝. The reading of 涝 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.