What 勒 means
It named a leather bridle used to control a horse.
Its early form joins 革, leather, with 力, strength, for sound. The oldest form traced here is bronze inscription, then small-seal script. As of 2026, the sources checked name no single inventor or exact first use.
From that bridle came rein in, restrain, compel, and carve. In 勒石 and 物勒工名, it marks text carved in stone or a maker's name engraved on an object; in 永字八法, the Eight Principles of the character 永, it names the horizontal stroke.
In compounds, it is direct; bridle and engraving senses feel literary.
勒索 vs 勒紧: 勒索 is lè-suǒ extort; 勒紧 is lēi-jǐn tighten.
Part of the collection
Who writes 勒
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What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsRein in or stop; a warning to pull back.
Related characters
2
Questions people ask
1Why does 勒 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
More like this
9
How to type or find 勒
- Search it as
- le · lei · 勒索 · 勒紧 · 勒令 · 勾勒 · 勒石 · 勒马
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
勒\52D2Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.