Chinese word dictionary

潦倒

liáo dǎo · down on one's luck; in straitened circumstances; disappointed; frustrated

Practice word

Word information

Simplified潦倒

Traditional潦倒

Pinyinliáo dǎo

Part of speechDictionary

HSK 3.0Not listed

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

潦lǎo

to flood; puddle; dejected, careless

倒dào

to collapse, to fall over; to lie down

How to learn 潦倒

Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.

When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

倒dào

to invert; to place upside down or frontside back; to pour out; to tip out; to dump; inverted; upside down; reversed; to go backward; contrary to what one might expect; but; yet

倒闭dǎobì

to go bankrupt; to close down

倒车dǎochē

to change buses, trains etc

倒是dàoshì

contrary to what one might expect; actually; contrariwise; why don't you

打倒dǎdǎo

to overthrow; to knock down; Down with ... !

倒霉dǎoméi

to have bad luck; to be out of luck