How to Write 螺 (luó) — Meaning “spiral shell / snail / screw”

Picture a snail (虫) carrying a shell that looks like a stack of coils (累). The right part 累 looks like many layers piled up, just like the whorls of a snail shell. Imagine the snail saying 'luó' as it slowly moves its spiral home.

Start by writing the left radical 虫 with normal stroke order, keeping it smaller than the right side. The right part 累 has many horizontal strokes in the top 田 and bottom 糸; make sure they are evenly spaced and parallel. A common mistake is making the right side too narrow, so allow enough width for both parts.

The key difference is the right-side component: 螺 uses 累, while 蝌 uses 科 (kē) and 蝎 uses 曷 (hé). Meaning-wise, 蝌 appears in 蝌蚪 (tadpole), 蝎 means scorpion, and 螺 refers to snails or screws. Visually, 累 has a 'field' (田) over 'silk' (糸), unlike the other two.

螺 appears in common words like 螺丝 (screw) for hardware, and 田螺 (river snail) or 海螺 (conch) as food. It is especially famous in 螺蛳粉, a popular spicy noodle soup from Guangxi. The character also appears in cultural references, like the legend of the "螺蛳姑娘" (snail maiden).

Common words containing 螺 include: 螺丝 (luó sī) — screw; 田螺 (tián luó) — river snail / field snail; 海螺 (hǎi luó) — Conch / Sea snail.