Hangul Syllable Raes

랫 is one Korean syllable; its meaning comes from a larger word.

Hangul groups consonant and vowel letters into square syllable blocks. By itself, 랫 has no fixed standalone meaning. In Korean gym terminology, it starts 랫 풀다운, the loanword for a lat pulldown exercise.

How is 랫 pronounced?

Alone, ㅅ is t-like; before a vowel, it can sound like s.

The vowel ㅐ is close to the e in English “bed.” The bottom consonant, called batchim in Korean, is ㅅ. Alone or before another consonant, it sounds like a short t with no release of air. When a Korean ending that starts with a vowel follows, ㅅ can link over and sound like s; the spelling stays the same.

How does 랫 fit Hangul’s history?

Hangul was designed to spell Korean syllables with letters.

The Sejong Sillok, a royal chronicle, records Hunminjeongeum in 1443; an explanatory book about the writing system appeared in 1446. Hangul groups letters for Korean sounds into syllable blocks.

A 2015 linguistic study describes these blocks as alphabetic letters arranged in square shapes and discusses their graphic connection to Chinese-character forms. The block 랫 is built from three sound-letter components: ㄹ, ㅐ, and ㅅ.