膏 meaning and stroke order
Grease, fat; ointment, paste
How to write 膏, 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 膏
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- ointment
- paste
- to moisten
- to grease
- to apply (cream, ointment)
- to dip a brush in ink
How 膏 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Flesh.
⺼ gives the meaning and 高 hints at the sound.
Radical: ⺼ (meat), shared by 176 characters on this site.
How to remember 膏
膏 is 高 (gāo, tall) sitting on top of ⺼ (flesh). 高 gives the sound gāo, and the flesh part points to fat, so think of a tall pile of rich fat that can be made into a paste.
In modern Chinese 膏 (gāo) mostly appears in words for creams and pastes, like 牙膏 (yágāo) toothpaste, 药膏 (yàogāo) ointment and 唇膏 (chúngāo) lip balm. Example: 我的牙膏用完了。(Wǒ de yágāo yòng wán le.) I ran out of toothpaste.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes write the top as a full 高 and then add 月 beside it, but the ⺼ goes underneath in place of the bottom box of 高. Also do not confuse 膏 with 糕 (gāo, cake), which has the same sound but uses 米 for rice.
Common words with 膏
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
膏 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 膏
How many strokes are in 膏?
膏 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 膏 mean?
膏 (gāo) means grease, fat; ointment, paste. A common word with it is 牙膏 (yágāo), meaning "toothpaste".
How do you pronounce 膏?
膏 is pronounced gāo, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 膏?
The radical of 膏 is ⺼, which carries the idea of "meat". Dictionaries list 膏 under this radical.
Is 膏 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 膏 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
When is 膏 read gào instead of gāo?
The gào reading is a verb meaning to grease, to apply ointment, or to dip a brush in ink, as in 膏油 (gào yóu) to apply oil. It is rare in daily speech, so gāo is the reading you will need almost all the time.
Does 膏 still mean animal fat in modern Chinese?
The fat sense survives mainly in set phrases and literary language, such as 膏腴 (gāoyú) for rich, fertile land. In everyday speech, 脂肪 (zhīfáng) or 油 (yóu) is used for fat, and 膏 usually means a paste or cream.