累
tired
lèi
What does 累 mean?
累 (lèi) means 'tired' — physically or mentally worn out. It is the everyday word Chinese speakers use to describe being drained after work, exercise, or a long day: 我很累 ('I'm very tired'), 累死了 ('dead tired,' a casual exaggeration). It can also be used transitively to mean 'to tire someone out' — 这个工作很累人 ('this job is exhausting'), 别累着 ('don't overtire yourself').
The reduplicated 累累 sounds bookish in this meaning; for emphasis, native speakers stack intensifiers: 太累了 ('so tired'), 真的好累 ('really exhausted'). The character 累 has a second reading léi in 累赘 (léizhuì, 'cumbersome'), and a third reading lěi in 积累 (jīlěi, 'to accumulate') — three pronunciations, three meanings, but the 'tired' meaning (lèi) is by far the most common at HSK 2 level. Pair-words: not tired = 不累; rest = 休息
Character breakdown
tired; worn out (also léi = burdened, lěi = accumulate)
Memory hook: 田 (field) over 糸 (silk thread) — bound by threads to the field, the original sense of being burdened. Modern meaning: weighed down, tired.
Example sentences
我今天很累。
Wǒ jīntiān hěn lèi.
I'm very tired today.
spoken
你累不累？
Nǐ lèi bu lèi?
Are you tired?
spoken
工作了一天，太累了。
Gōngzuò le yì tiān, tài lèi le.
After working all day, I'm exhausted.
spoken
累了就休息一下。
Lèi le jiù xiūxi yíxià.
If you're tired, take a short break.
spoken
Common phrases with 累
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累 appears in 4 podcast episodes at natural native speed, with full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
Synonyms
疲劳 is 'fatigued' — more formal and clinical, used in writing or by doctors (视觉疲劳 'eye fatigue'). 累 is the everyday spoken word.
辛苦 means 'hard / arduous' as a description of work, or 'thank you for your trouble' as a polite phrase. 你辛苦了 = 'you've worked hard' (gratitude). 累 describes the personal feeling; 辛苦 describes the effort itself.
Don't confuse 累 with
FAQ
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