Learn Chinese Characters

Meaning

kind; type; class; category; similar; like

Chinese: 类别、种类或相似。

Hear the Four Tones

The same syllable “lei” becomes a different word in each tone. 类 is the 4th tone. Tap any tone to hear a native voice and see its pitch shape.

Stroke Order

Tap Animate to watch the strokes in order, or Practice to trace it yourself.

Common Words

  • 人类rén lèihumanity; human race; mankind
  • 类似lèi sìsimilar; analogous
  • 类型lèi xíngtype; kind; category; (computer programming) type
  • 种类zhǒng lèikind; genus; type; category
  • 分类fēn lèito classify

Example Sentence

商店里有各类水果。Shāng diàn lǐ yǒu gè lèi shuǐ guǒ.There are all kinds of fruit in the store.

商店Shāng diànstoreinsideyǒuto have各类gè lèiall categories水果shuǐ guǒfruit

Go deeper

Where this character comes from

Simplified from 類. It means ‘a kind, sort, category, class; to resemble, be similar; to classify’ (种类, 类似, 人类).

A way to remember it

‘A kind / category’: 种类 (kinds), 人类 (humankind).