HSK Guide

xiào, jiàoschool; (jiào) to check against an original, to proofread, to collate

xiào (fourth tone, falling) jiào (fourth tone, falling)

2 readings — the first is the most common.

school; (jiào) to check against an original, to proofread, to collate

10 画部首 词频 #319

拼音

  • xiào (fourth tone, falling)most common
  • jiào (fourth tone, falling)

school; (jiào) to check against an original, to proofread, to collate

字形拆解

Ideographic description

⿰木交The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.

  • meaning partno entry yetWood: the earliest sense of the character is a wooden frame, a set of stocks or a fenced ground.
  • sound partno entry yet交 jiāo for the sound; it pictures a standing figure with the legs crossed.

Mnemonic

Wood 木 with 交 jiāo for the sound. The character began as a wooden frame and then a fenced enclosure — a drill ground — and from the ground where the young were trained came the school: 学校, 校长 a principal, 学校门口. In the fourth tone jiào it keeps a quite separate life in the print shop: 校对 to proofread, 校正 to correct against the original.

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