桥/橋 qiáo — a bridge

Pinyin

• qiáo (second tone, rising)

a bridge

Character breakdown

• 木meaning partno entry yetWood: the first bridges were timber laid across a stream.
• 乔sound partno entry yet乔 qiáo for the sound; on its own it means tall, and a bridge does stand high above the water.

Mnemonic

Wood 木 with 乔 "tall" for the sound: timber raised over water. The phonetic carries a fair share of the sense here, which makes the character easy to hold. 过桥 to cross a bridge, 桥梁 a bridge in the engineering sense and, figuratively, a link between two sides.

A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.

Words containing 桥

No published word on HSK Guide uses this character yet. Search the dictionary.

Radical 木 — other characters

• 校xiào (fourth tone, falling) jiào (fourth tone, falling)school; (jiào) to check against an original, to proofread, to collate
• 树/樹shù (fourth tone, falling)a tree; to plant, to set upright; to establish, to cultivate