TraceHanzi

曉 meaning and stroke order

xiǎo

Dawn; clear, explicit, known

16 strokesRadical 日Simplified 晓
Strokes16
Pinyinxiǎo
ToneTone 3
Frequency#3,823
Printable worksheet

How to write 曉, stroke by stroke

16 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 曉

Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.

xiǎothird tone (dipping)
  1. dawn
  2. daybreak
  3. to know
  4. to let sb know
  5. to make explicit

How 曉 is built

Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Sun.

rìsun+yáoa legendary ancie…

日 gives the meaning and 堯 hints at the sound.

Radical: 日 (sun), shared by 116 characters on this site.

How to remember 曉

曉 is built from 日 (sun), which gives the meaning, and 堯 (yáo), which hints at the sound. Picture the sun rising high over the horizon at dawn, making everything clear and known.

曉 is the traditional form; simplified Chinese writes it 晓. In modern speech it mostly appears in words like 曉得 (xiǎode, to know), 揭曉 (jiēxiǎo, to announce), and 破曉 (pòxiǎo, daybreak). Example: 我不曉得他去哪兒了。(Wǒ bù xiǎode tā qù nǎr le.) I don't know where he went.

Common mistake: Learners often confuse 曉 (xiǎo, third tone) with 小 (xiǎo, small) or 笑 (xiào, to laugh) because the sounds are close. In 曉得 the 得 is neutral tone (xiǎode), not dé.

Common words with 曉

Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.

WordPinyinMeaningLevel
曉得xiǎodeto knowHSK 6
揭曉jiēxiǎoto announce publicly; to publishHSK 7-9
家喻戶曉jiāyù-hùxiǎounderstood by everyone (idiom); well known; a household nameHSK 7-9
知曉zhīxiǎoto know; to understand
天曉得tiānxiǎodeHeaven knows!
破曉pòxiǎodaybreak; dawn
拂曉fúxiǎodaybreak; approach of dawn

Questions about 曉

How many strokes are in 曉?

曉 is written with 16 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.

What does 曉 mean?

曉 (xiǎo) means dawn; clear, explicit, known. A common word with it is 晓得 (xiǎode), meaning "to know".

How do you pronounce 曉?

曉 is pronounced xiǎo, in the third tone (dipping).

What is the radical of 曉?

The radical of 曉 is 日, which carries the idea of "sun". Dictionaries list 曉 under this radical.

What is the simplified form of 曉?

曉 is a traditional character. Its simplified form is 晓, used in mainland China and Singapore.

What is the difference between 曉得 and 知道?

Both mean to know. 知道 (zhīdao) is the standard everyday word, while 曉得 (xiǎode) sounds more colloquial and regional, especially common in southern and southwestern China.

What does 天曉得 mean?

天曉得 (tiānxiǎode) literally means Heaven knows. It is used like the English phrase who knows, to say nobody can tell or to express disbelief.