How to Write 痢 (lì) — Meaning “dysentery”

Think of a "sharp illness" — the radical 疒 means sickness, and 利 means sharp or fast. Imagine that dysentery causes a very sharp, urgent pain in your stomach, so the character is literally a "sharp sickness."

Start with the radical 疒: write the dot, horizontal, left-falling stroke, dot, and short horizontal. Then write 利: first the left-side 禾 (stroke order: left-falling, horizontal, vertical, right-falling, dot), then the right-side 刂 (vertical stroke, vertical hook). A common mistake is making the left-falling stroke of 疒 too short — it should extend clearly below the dot inside.

All three share the 疒 radical, but the right parts differ. 痢 uses 利 (meaning dysentery), 疰 uses 主 (meaning a chronic or seasonal disease), and 疱 uses 包 (meaning a blister or skin swelling). The pronunciations and meanings are completely different, so focus on the right-side component to tell them apart.

痢 appears mostly in medical terms like 痢疾 (dysentery) and 拉痢疾 (to suffer from dysentery). It is not common in everyday conversation but is well known in health discussions and traditional Chinese medicine, where dysentery is treated with specific herbal remedies.

Common words containing 痢 include: 痢疾 (lì jí) — dysentery; 拉痢疾 (lā lì jí) — To suffer from dysentery; 痢疾药 (lì jí yào) — medicine for dysentery.