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Definition 2025

樂

樂

See also: 乐

Translingual

Traditional 樂
Shinjitai 楽
Simplified 乐

Han character

樂 (radical 75 木+11, 15 strokes, cangjie input 女戈木 (VID), four-corner 22904, composition ⿱⿲幺白幺木)

References

Chinese

trad. 樂
simp. 乐
alt. forms 楽

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 樂
Oracle bone script Bronze inscriptions Large seal script Small seal script
Characters in the same phonetic series (樂) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
樂 *ŋraːwɢs, *raːwɢ, *ŋraːwɢ
轢 *raːd, *raːwɢ, *reːwɢ
濼 *pqʰlaːwɢ, *raːwɢ, *reːwɢ, *pqʰloːwɢ, *roːwɢ, *roːwɢ
躒 *raːwɢ, *reːwɢ
擽 *rawɢ, *reːwɢ
爍 *qʰljawɢ
鑠 *qʰljawɢ
藥 *lawɢ
櫟 *lawɢ, *reːwɢ
纅 *lawɢ
礫 *reːwɢ
瓅 *reːwɢ
皪 *reːwɢ
觻 *reːwɢ, *roːwɢ
嚛 *qʰloːwɢ, *qʰloːwɢ

Ideogrammic compound (會意) : 糸 ‎(“string”) + 木 ‎(“wood”) – strings on a piece of wood, i.e. a wooden musical instrument.

The oracle bone form shows two strings connected to the wood. In the bronze inscriptions, a 白 component was added in between the two strings, which may either represent the thumb (fiddling) or a phonetic part.

Etymology

The etymological relationship between “music” and “joy” has been discussed in Wulff (1935) and Unger (1983). Unger draws comparison with the following semantic parallelism in Tibetan: རོལ་མོ ‎(rol mo, “music”) and རོལ་བ ‎(rol ba, “to enjoy; to amuse oneself; to play”).

Pronunciation 1

Rime
Character 樂
Reading # 2/3
Initial (聲) 疑 (31)
Final (韻) 覺 (10)
Tone (調) Checked (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) II
Fanqie 五角切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /ŋˠʌk̚/
Pan
Wuyun		 /ŋᵚɔk̚/
Shao
Rongfen		 /ŋɔk̚/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /ŋaɨwk̚/
Li
Rong		 /ŋɔk̚/
Wang
Li		 /ŋɔk̚/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /ŋɔk̚/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 yuè
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 樂
Reading # 4/4
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 yuè
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ ngæwk ›
Old
Chinese		 /*[ŋ]ˤrawk/
English music

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character 樂
Reading # 1/3
No. 7670
Phonetic
component		 樂
Rime
group		 豹
Rime
subdivision		 1
Corresponding
MC rime		 樂
Old
Chinese		 /*ŋraːwɢs/

Definitions

樂

  1. music; tune; melody; song
    音樂 / 音乐  ―  yīnyuè  ―  music
  2. Short for 樂經／乐经 (Yuèjīng, “Classic of Music”).
  3. A surname​.

Compounds

Pronunciation 2

Rime
Character 樂
Reading # 3/3
Initial (聲) 來 (37)
Final (韻) 鐸 (103)
Tone (調) Checked (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) I
Fanqie 盧各切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /lɑk̚/
Pan
Wuyun		 /lɑk̚/
Shao
Rongfen		 /lɑk̚/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /lak̚/
Li
Rong		 /lɑk̚/
Wang
Li		 /lɑk̚/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /lɑk̚/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 luò
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 樂
Reading # 2/4
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 lè
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ lak ›
Old
Chinese		 /*[r]ˤawk/
English joy; enjoy

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character 樂
Reading # 2/3
No. 7673
Phonetic
component		 樂
Rime
group		 藥
Rime
subdivision		 1
Corresponding
MC rime		 落
Old
Chinese		 /*raːwɢ/

Definitions

樂

  1. joyful; happy; glad
  2. enjoyable; fun
  3. happiness; joy; pleasure
    樂趣 / 乐趣  ―  lèqù  ―  delight; pleasure
  4. †lasciviousness; lechery; decadence
  5. to laugh; to smile
  6. to enjoy; to love

Compounds

Pronunciation 3

Rime
Character 樂
Reading # 1/3
Initial (聲) 疑 (31)
Final (韻) 肴 (90)
Tone (調) Departing (H)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) II
Fanqie 五敎切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /ŋˠauH/
Pan
Wuyun		 /ŋᵚauH/
Shao
Rongfen		 /ŋauH/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /ŋaɨwH/
Li
Rong		 /ŋauH/
Wang
Li		 /ŋauH/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /ŋauH/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 yào
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 樂
Reading # 3/4
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 yào
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ ngæwH ›
Old
Chinese		 /*[ŋ]ˤrawk-s/
English cause to rejoice

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character 樂
Reading # 1/3
No. 7670
Phonetic
component		 樂
Rime
group		 豹
Rime
subdivision		 1
Corresponding
MC rime		 樂
Old
Chinese		 /*ŋraːwɢs/

Definitions

樂

  1. † to be fond of; to enjoy; to appreciate

Compounds

Pronunciation 4

Definitions

樂

  1. Used in placenames.
    樂亭 / 乐亭  ―  Làotíng  ―  Laoting County, Hebei Province
    樂陵 / 乐陵  ―  Làolíng  ―  Laoling, Shandong Province

Pronunciation 5

Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 樂
Reading # 1/4
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 lè
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ lak ›
Old
Chinese		 /*[r]ˤawk/
English to cure

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Definitions

樂

  1. †Alternative form of 療／疗 (liáo, “to cure; to treat”).
    樂饑 / 乐饥  ―  liáojī  ―  to appease one's hunger

Pronunciation 6

Definitions

樂

  1. †sparse; thinly spread
  2. †Only used in 樂託／乐托 (“slack; unrestrained; desolate”).

Japanese

Kanji

樂

(“Jinmeiyō” kanji used for names, kyūjitai kanji, shinjitai form 楽)

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Readings

Korean

Hanja

樂 • ‎(ak, rak, yo)
Eumhun:

  • Sound (hangeul): 악, 락, 요 (revised: ak, rak, yo, McCune-Reischauer: ak, rak, yo, Yale: ak, lak, yo)
  • Name (hangeul): 풍류()
  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Vietnamese

Han character

樂 (lạc, nhác, nhạc, nhạo)

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

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