lǎo /
noun #52,446

Meanings

  1. 1 maternal grandmother
  2. 2 old woman

Examples

HSK 2
Xiǎoshíhou lǎolao cháng gěi wǒ jiǎng gùshi.
When I was little, Grandma often told me stories.
HSK 7-9
Zhège zhōumò wǒmen qù lǎolao lǎoye jiā.
This weekend we are going to Grandma and Grandpa's house.
HSK 7-9
Tā de gūlǎolao cóng xiāngxià lái zuòkè.
Her great-aunt has come to visit from the countryside.

Tips

mistakes
Read lǎo in the everyday word 姥姥 (mother's mother), the northern counterpart of 外婆. A separate literary reading mǔ appears in old poetry like Li Bai's 天姥 mountain.

Components

radical
woman; female
The woman radical on the left marks this as a female relative or elderly woman, fitting for a word meaning grandmother.
phonetic
lǎo
old; aged
On the right it supplies the sound and the meaning together: gives the lǎo reading and directly evokes an elderly person, here an old woman or grandmother.

Stroke Order

lǎo