敲 meaning and stroke order
To hit; to strike; to tap
How to write 敲, stroke by stroke
14 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 敲
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- to hit
- to strike
- to tap
- to rap
- to knock
- to rip sb off
How 敲 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Strike.
攴 gives the meaning and 高 hints at the sound.
How to remember 敲
The left side is 高 (gāo, tall), which gives the sound, and the right side is 攴, a hand holding a stick, which means to strike. Picture a hand tapping on a tall door to knock.
敲 (qiāo) usually means a light, repeated hit or tap, like knocking on a door, tapping a keyboard, or striking a drum or bell. It also appears in colloquial speech meaning to rip someone off, and in 敲定 (qiāodìng) for finalizing a decision. Example: 有人在敲门。(Yǒu rén zài qiāo mén.) Someone is knocking at the door.
Common mistake: Learners often write the right side as 攵 or 支 instead of 攴, or mix up 敲 with 搞 (gǎo, to do), which has a hand radical 扌 on the left of 高. The tone is first tone, qiāo, not the third-tone qiǎo of 巧.
Common words with 敲
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 敲门 | qiāo mén | to knock on a door | HSK 5 |
| 敲诈 | qiāozhà | to rip off; to extort (money) | HSK 7-9 |
| 推敲 | tuīqiāo | to think over | HSK 7-9 |
| 敲边鼓 | qiāo biāngǔ | to back sb up; to support sb in an argument | HSK 7-9 |
| 敲打 | qiāodǎ | to beat sb; to beat (a drum) | |
| 敲响 | qiāoxiǎng | to sound a bell; to raise the alarm | |
| 敲定 | qiāodìng | to come to a decision; to fix on (a date etc) | |
| 敲击 | qiāojī | to pound; to rap | |
| 敲开 | qiāokāi | to get sth open by tapping or striking it; (figuratively, when followed by sth like ∼的大門|∼ |
敲 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 敲
How many strokes are in 敲?
敲 is written with 14 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 敲 mean?
敲 (qiāo) means to hit; to strike; to tap. A common word with it is 敲门 (qiāo mén), meaning "to knock on a door".
How do you pronounce 敲?
敲 is pronounced qiāo, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 敲?
The radical of 敲 is 攴. Dictionaries list 敲 under this radical.
Is 敲 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 敲 is part of the HSK 5 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 敲 and 打?
打 (dǎ) is a general word for hitting and has many other meanings. 敲 (qiāo) is more specific: a tap or knock, often light and repeated, as on a door, a table, or a drum.
Why does 推敲 mean to think something over carefully?
推敲 (tuīqiāo) literally combines push and knock. It comes from a well-known story of a poet who could not decide whether to write push or knock in a line about a door, so the word came to mean weighing words or ideas carefully.