累 (lèi) means "tired" with HSK 2 on the new exam.
Pronunciation
Meaning
Primary: tired
Etymology
Oracle-bone origin
累 does not appear in oracle-bone script. Its seal form is a compound of 田 (field) stacked above 糸 (silk thread), which the Shuowen Jiezi explains as threads piling up or fields linked in succession, giving a core sense of accumulating or stringing together. An older variant 纍 with three 田 over 糸 makes the piling image explicit. The 田 here is thought by some scholars to have originated from a different element that later merged graphically with the field character.
Form evolution
Seal script shows a clear 田 over a full 糸. Clerical script squared off 田 and simplified 糸 to its modern seven-stroke radical form, producing a structure that has remained stable ever since. In the 1950s simplification, 纍 (with three 田) and 累 were merged into the single form 累, which now covers all the historical senses.
How the meaning evolved
The original meaning was to accumulate or pile up, still seen in 积累 (accumulate) and 累计 (total up). A parallel sense of entangling or implicating emerged early, giving 连累 (drag into trouble) and 累及 (implicate). The everyday modern meaning of tired or weary (我很累) is a semantic extension from the weight of accumulated burdens, and it is this sense most HSK learners meet first.
Cultural note
累 is a classic polyphone: lèi for tired and to tire, lěi for to accumulate (积累, 日积月累), and léi in the bound form 累赘 (cumbersome). Learners routinely get tripped up when 积累 shows up in a reading text and they default to the lèi reading. The idiom 日积月累 (day by day, month by month it accumulates) is one of the most common written phrases using the lěi pronunciation.
Basic info
| Pinyin | lèi |
| Meanings | tired |
| New HSK exam | Recognise at HSK 2 |
| Frequency | #1043 most common |
Example sentences
Words containing 累
On the new HSK 2 exam
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Reviewed by RJ Murray, Founder, HSK Lord.