How to Write 醪 (láo) — Meaning “unfiltered wine / wine dregs”

Imagine a person (人) holding two feathery brushes (羽羽) and dipping them into a wine jar (酉), stirring up chunks of grain — that messy, unfiltered wine is 醪. The sound "láo" can also remind you of "loud" because unfiltered wine has a strong, bold flavor.

Write the left radical 酉 first with its seven strokes: horizontal, vertical, horizontal, horizontal, horizontal, vertical fold, horizontal. Then the right side 翏: start with two 羽 (each six strokes) on top, then a 人 with two strokes below. A common mistake is making the 羽 components too wide or forgetting the small inner dots.

醪 (láo) means unfiltered wine or wine dregs, while 醍 (tí) and 醐 (hú) together form 醍醐 (tíhú), meaning clarified butter or the finest essence in Buddhist texts. Visually, the right side is different: 醪 has 翏, 醍 has 是, and 醐 has 胡, so you can tell them apart by those components.

醪 is most common in the word 醪糟 (láozāo), a sweet fermented glutinous rice dish often eaten as a dessert or used in cooking. In Chinese culture, 醪糟 is traditionally given to new mothers for recovery and is also popular during festivals like the Lunar New Year for its mild, comforting sweetness.

Common words containing 醪 include: 醪糟 (láo zāo) — fermented glutinous rice; 醪酒 (láo jiǔ) — unfiltered wine; 浊醪 (zhuó láo) — unfiltered wine; cloudy wine.