How to Write 氯 (lǜ) — Meaning “Chlorine”

Think of chlorine as a 'green gas' because it has a greenish-yellow color. The right part 录 looks a bit like the character 绿 (lǜ, green), and the left radical 气 means gas, so together they remind you of green gas.

The left radical 气 has 4 strokes, ending with a curved hook (横折弯钩) that should extend smoothly to the right. The right part 录 has 8 strokes; a common mistake is to write its bottom part like 水, but the first stroke there is actually a vertical hook (竖钩), not a vertical line.

All three share the 气 radical, but their right parts differ: 氯 uses 录 (lù), 氦 uses 亥 (hài), and 氤 uses 因 (yīn). In meaning, 氯 is the element chlorine, 氦 is helium (used in balloons), and 氤 is not a chemical element but appears in the literary word 氤氲 meaning 'misty'.

氯 appears in chemistry terms like 氯气 (chlorine gas) for disinfection and 氯化钠 (sodium chloride, table salt). It is common in everyday contexts such as swimming pool cleaning and bleach products (消毒氯). Because it is a specialized scientific character, it is not included in the HSK vocabulary list.

Common words containing 氯 include: 氯气 (lǜ qì) — Chlorine gas; 氯化钠 (lǜ huà nà) — Sodium chloride; 消毒氯 (xiāo dú lǜ) — disinfectant chlorine.