How to Write 屚 (lòu) — Meaning “to leak; leakage”

Imagine a leaky roof (尸) letting rain (雨) drip inside. Or picture a corpse (尸) lying in the rain, with water dripping everywhere to remind you of a leak. Both visuals connect the two parts to the idea of leakage.

Write the top radical 尸 with three strokes: horizontal fold, horizontal, then left slant. The bottom 雨 has eight strokes; make it slightly wider than the top to balance the character. A common mistake is making 尸 too narrow, which makes the character look unbalanced.

屚 has rain below, so it means leakage, while 屋 (house) has 至 below and means a building. 屌 has 吊 below and is slang for a vulgar term; its structure and meaning are completely different. Visually, 屚 is the only one combining rain with the roof radical.

屚 is an older variant of the common character 漏 (lòu), so it is rarely used in everyday writing today. You may encounter it in classical texts, temple inscriptions, or calligraphy. The word 屋屚 (roof leak) still appears occasionally, but most modern speakers use 漏水 or 漏雨 instead.

Common words containing 屚 include: 屋屚 (wū lòu) — Roof leak.; 屚水 (lòu shuǐ) — water leakage; 屚雨 (lòu yǔ) — rain leakage.