Dong Chinese dictionary

lè, yuè

happy, music

Depicts an ancient wooden stringed musical instrument.

Components

幺 Iconic component

me, yāo

tiny

Depicts a string.

白 Sound component

bái

white

樂 and 白 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.樂 /*[r]ˤawk/, /*[r]ˤawk/, /*[ŋ]ˤrawk-s/, /*[ŋ]ˤrawk/
白 /*bˤrak/

幺 Iconic component

me, yāo

tiny

Depicts a string.

木 Iconic component

mù

tree

Depicts the wooden base of a musical instrument.

Evolution

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

乐 (樂)

lè

happy, glad; enjoyable; music; happy; cheerful; to laugh

乐 (樂)

Lè

surname Le

乐 (樂)

Yuè

surname Yue

Most common words with 樂

Freq.	Word	Meaning
	快乐	happy
	音乐	music
	俱乐部	club (the organisation or its premises) (loanword)
	乐	happy
	娱乐	to entertain

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

爍

Sound component in 4 characters (1 verified)

Sources

MTSU Chinese text computing

漢語多功能字庫

Freq.

Word

Meaning