螺 (luó): spiral shell; snail; conch

Measure Word

一只螺 zhī

Meanings

1 spiral shell; snail; conch
2 snail or shellfish with a spiral shell

Characters

螺

luó

spiral shell; snail; conch

Examples

海滩上有很多形状各异的螺。

Hǎitān shàng yǒu hěnduō xíngzhuàng gèyì de luó.

On the beach there are many differently shaped shells.

螺蛳粉是广西的著名小吃，以螺为主料。

Luósīfěn shì Guǎngxī de zhùmíng xiǎochī, yǐ luó wéizhǔ liào.

River snail noodles are a famous snack from Guangxi, made primarily with river snails.

Tips

culture

螺蛳粉 (luósī fěn), the pungent river snail noodle soup from Guilin/Liuzhou, became a viral internet sensation during COVID-19 lockdowns as demand for the packaged version skyrocketed.

Components

radical

虫 chóng

bug; small creature

Left bug radical 虫 — pictograph of a curled-up snake originally, generalised in classical Chinese to cover all small crawling creatures including molluscs and shellfish. In 螺 it marks the spiral-shelled animal as a tiny creature of the soft-bodied family. Same indexing radical: 蛇 snake, 蜘 spider, 蚊 mosquito.

phonetic

累 lěi

to pile up; rope (here phonetic)

Right 累 supplies the sound — lěi drifting to luó with a slight vowel shift. 累 originally pictured silk threads coiling and tangling, which fits the spiral shell beautifully: a snail is a creature wound up like rope. The piled-up imagery quietly reinforces the spiraling geometry.