路

Stroke order

路 (Kangxi radical 157, 足+6, 13 strokes, cangjie input 口一竹水口 (RMHER), four-corner 6716₄, composition ⿰𧾷各)

• 潞, 璐, 㯝, 鏴, 𡀔, 𢷅, 𤢊, 𧒌, 𫄉, 𦓉, 𧸚, 𨎲, 𪆬/𪆽, 𤮗
• 露, 簬, 蕗, 𡽘, 𦌕, 鷺(鹭), 𧒍, 𩁐, 𫘘, 𪛅, 𮮍

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1225, character 22
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 37524
• Dae Jaweon: page 1697, character 6
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 3704, character 6
• Unihan data for U+8DEF

• Unihan data for U+F937

Wikipedia has articles on:

• 路姓 (Written Standard Chinese^?)
• 路氏 (Cantonese)
• Lō͘ (sèⁿ) (Southern Min)
• Lu (surname 路) (English)

Historical forms of the character 路
Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *ɡ·raːɡs): semantic 足 + phonetic 各 (OC *klaːɡ).

Either related to 格 (OC *klaːɡ, *kraːɡ, “to come, to arrive (obsolete)”) (Baxter, 1992) or from Proto-Austroasiatic *kraʔ (“road, way”) (Schuessler, 2007), whence Proto-Vietic *kraːʔ (→ fossilized Vietnamese sá & Muong khá (“road, way”)), Chong (khraa), Kuy ((k)na), and Proto-Waic *kraʔ. Possibly cognate with 略 (OC *ɡ·raɡ).

"-year-old, in multiples of ten"

Orthographic borrowing from Japanese 路(じ) (ji). See Japanese 三十路(みそじ) (misoji).

路

1. road; path; street (Classifier: 條／条 m c mn)

   修路  ―  xiūlù  ―  to build a road

   • 這正如地上的路；其實地上本沒有路，走的人多了，也便成了路。 [MSC, trad.]
     这正如地上的路；其实地上本没有路，走的人多了，也便成了路。 [MSC, simp.]

     From: 1921, Lu Xun, 故鄉 (My Old Home)

     Zhè zhèngrú dìshàng de lù; qíshí dìshàng běn méiyǒu lù, zǒu de rén duō le, yě biàn chéng le lù.

     It is just like roads across the earth. For actually the earth had no roads to begin with, but when many men pass one way, a road is made.

2. pattern; arrangement; sequence

   思路  ―  sīlù  ―  train of thought

   紋路／纹路  ―  wénlù  ―  veined pattern

3. way; method

   生路  ―  shēnglù  ―  means of livelihood; way of subsistence

   • 無路請纓，等終軍之弱冠。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     无路请缨，等终军之弱冠。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: 7th century, 王勃 (Wang Bo), 滕王閣序

     Wúlù qǐngyīng, děng Zhōng Jūn zhī ruòguàn.

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

4. journey

   回家的路很遠。／回家的路很远。  ―  Huíjiā de lù hěn yuǎn.  ―  It's a long journey to return home.

   佢身體好虛，行幾步路都會暈。 [Cantonese, trad.]
   佢身体好虚，行几步路都会晕。 [Cantonese, simp.]

   keoi⁵ san¹ tai² hou² heoi¹, haang⁴ gei² bou⁶ lou⁶ dou¹ wui⁵ wan⁴.

   His body is very weak, walking only a few steps already makes him dizzy.

   還有一公里的路要走。 [MSC, trad.]
   还有一公里的路要走。 [MSC, simp.]

   Háiyǒu yī gōnglǐ de lù yào zǒu.

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   • 三十功名塵與土，八千里路雲和月。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     三十功名尘与土，八千里路云和月。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Yue Fei (1103-1142), Man Jiang Hong (滿江紅)

     Sānshí gōngmíng chén yǔ tǔ, bāqiān lǐ lù yún hé yuè.

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

5. route

   三路進軍／三路进军  ―  sān lù jìnjūn  ―  to advance along three routes

   12路公交車／12路公交车  ―  12 lù gōngjiāochē  ―  No. 12 bus

6. kind; type
7. region

   各路人馬／各路人马  ―  gè lù rénmǎ  ―  people from different places

8. Classifier for lines or rows.
9. -year-old, in multiples of ten; decade(s) of one's life; Used for describing the style of people in such age range.

   三十路大叔  ―  sānshílù dàshū  ―  a man in his thirties

10. (historical) circuit (an administrative unit during the Song and Yuan dynasties)
11. a surname

• “路”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• “路”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.

(Third grade kyōiku kanji)

1. road, path, street
2. journey
3. way, method
4. important position

• Go-on: る (ru)
• Kan-on: ろ (ro, Jōyō)
• Kun: じ (ji, 路, Jōyō)^{←ぢ (di, ぢ, historical)}、ち (chi, 路)、みち (michi, 路)

From Old Japanese.^[1]

• IPA^(key):

路(ち) • (-chi) 

1. (obsolete) attaches to place names, indicating a road to that place

   This usage has generally been replaced by 路(じ) (ji) below.

• 道(みち), 路(みち), 途(みち), 径(みち) (michi)
• 長(なが)路(ち) (nagachi)

Originally a rendaku (連濁) form of 路(ち) (chi) above.^[2]

• IPA^(key):

路(じ) • (-ji) ^{←ぢ (-di)?}

1. a road, a street

   山(やま)路(じ)、長(なが)路(じ)

   yama-ji, naga-ji

   a mountain road, a long road

2. attaches to place names, indicating a road to that place

   奈(な)良(ら)路(じ)

   Nara-ji

   road to Nara

3. attaches to a time duration, indicating a trip taking that length of time

   四(よっ)日(か)路(じ)

   yokka-ji

   a four-day trip

From Middle Chinese 路 (MC luH).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): ~
• Phonetic hangul:
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

路 (eumhun 길 로 (gil ro), word-initial (South Korea) 길 노 (gil no))

1. hanja form^? of 로/노 (“road, route; avenue, street”)

路: Hán Nôm readings: lộ

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.