How to Write 喇 (lǎ) — Meaning “horn / trumpet sound”

Imagine a lama (喇嘛) using his mouth (口) to blow a long horn shaped like the right side 剌. This connects the character to the common words 喇叭 (horn) and 喇嘛 (lama).

Write the left mouth radical 口 first, then the right side 剌: start with 束 (a vertical stroke followed by horizontal strokes) and finish with the knife radical 刂 on the far right. A common mistake is mixing up the strokes in 束, especially missing the middle horizontal line.

喇 has a left-right structure (口 + 剌) and means 'horn', while 哥 is two 可 stacked vertically and means 'older brother'. Visually, 哥 is tall and symmetrical, whereas 喇 is wider with a clear left-right split.

喇 almost always appears in the compound word 喇叭 (lǎba), meaning 'horn, trumpet, or loudspeaker'. It is also used in 喇嘛 (lǎma) for Tibetan Buddhist monks, and in 喇叭花 (lǎba huā) for the morning glory flower.

Common words containing 喇 include: 喇叭 (lǎ bā) — horn / trumpet / loudspeaker; 喇叭花 (lǎ bā huā) — morning glory; 喇嘛 (lǎ ma) — lama (Tibetan Buddhist monk).