How to Write 屡 (lǚ) — Meaning “repeatedly; time and again”

Imagine a corpse (尸) that keeps coming back to life over and over again — that's 'repeatedly' (屡). Another trick: the bottom part 娄 looks like a woman (女) cooking rice (米), and she does it repeatedly every day.

Write the radical 尸 first (3 strokes: horizontal fold, left-falling, horizontal), then the lower part 娄, which combines 米 (6 strokes) and 女 (3 strokes). A common mistake is making the top 尸 too small or the bottom 女 too narrow — keep the 尸 covering the top half and let 娄 be slightly wider.

屡 has 娄 below (rice + woman), while 屐 has 支 (branch) and means 'wooden clogs', and 屑 has 肖 (small moon) and means 'crumbs'. Visually, remember 屡 is about frequency, so think of many layers (娄 looks like layered rice and woman).

屡 is used in formal or written Chinese to mean 'repeatedly' or 'time and again', as in 屡次 (many times) or the idiom 屡见不鲜 (a common occurrence). The idiom 屡战屡败 (to lose every battle) is often used humorously or self-deprecatingly to describe persistent but unsuccessful efforts.

Common words containing 屡 include: 屡次 (lǚ cì) — repeatedly; many times; 屡见不鲜 (lǚ jiàn bù xiān) — a common occurrence; nothing new; 屡战屡败 (lǚ zhàn lǚ bài) — to lose every battle; to suffer repeated defeats.