料 (liào): material; stuff; ingredient

Meanings

1 material; stuff; ingredient
2 to expect; to anticipate; to foresee

Characters

料

liao

material; to expect; to anticipate

Examples

这件衣服的料子很好。

Zhè jiàn yīfu de liàozi hěn hǎo.

The fabric of this garment is very good.

我没料到他会来。

Wǒ méi liàodào tā huì lái.

I didn't expect him to come.

做菜需要准备好调料。

Zuòcài xūyào zhǔnbèi hǎo tiáoliào.

You need to prepare the seasonings for cooking.

出乎意料。

Chūhūyìliào.

Beyond expectation; surprisingly.

Tips

usage

As a noun: 材料 (material), 原料 (raw material), 调料 (seasoning), 饮料 (drink/beverage), 燃料 (fuel), 资料 (data/reference material). As a verb: 料到 (to foresee), 出乎意料 (unexpectedly), 不出所料 (as expected).

usage

料 as a verb is literary. 出乎意料 (beyond expectation) and 不出所料 (as expected) are very common set phrases.

Components

radical

斗 dǒu

ladle; dry measure

斗 on the right — the indexing radical, picturing a long-handled ladle/dipper used as a dry measure for grain. Together with 米 on the left, the character paints the act of dipping rice from a bin to weigh it out: ladle + grain = measuring/material. Same radical heads 科 (subject), 斜 (slanted).

semantic

米 mǐ

rice

Rice on the left — pictures grains scattered around a central crossroads. It supplies meaning: 料 is fundamentally about measuring out grain. From that concrete origin came every modern sense — material (材料), feed (饲料), data (资料), and the verb 'to estimate, to anticipate' (料想, 不料).