Meaning of 咳
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- cough
- sound of sighing
- (interjection expressing surprise, sorrow, regret, disappointment etc) oh
- damn
- wow
How to use 咳
As a verb, 咳 (ké) usually appears in the compound 咳嗽 (késou), which is the everyday word for coughing. It also shows up in medical words like 止咳 (zhǐ ké), to suppress a cough. Example: 他昨天晚上一直咳嗽。(Tā zuótiān wǎnshang yìzhí késou.) He kept coughing all last night.
咳 combines 口 (mouth) on the left with 亥 (hài) on the right, which hints at the sound. Picture a mouth making a harsh "hai" noise when you cough.
Common mistake: Learners often write 孩 (hái, child) or 该 (gāi, should) by mistake, since all three share 亥. Remember that coughing comes from the mouth, so 咳 takes 口 on the left.
咳 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
咳 ké · cough · 9 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 咳.
Questions about 咳
What does 咳 mean?
咳 (ké) means "cough" and is used as a verb.
How do you write 咳?
咳 is made of 1 character: 咳 (9 strokes). That is 9 strokes in total.
Is 咳 an HSK word?
Yes. 咳 is on the HSK 5 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
When is 咳 pronounced hāi instead of ké?
It is read hāi when used as an interjection, like "oh" or "damn", to show regret, surprise or disappointment. For example, 咳，我又忘了。(Hāi, wǒ yòu wàng le.) Oh, I forgot again. Many people write this sigh as 嗨 or 唉 today.
Can I say 咳 alone, or do I need 咳嗽?
In spoken Chinese, 咳嗽 is much more natural for "to cough". 咳 alone appears mostly in set phrases and written or medical terms, such as 止咳 (zhǐ ké) or 咳痰 (ké tán, to cough up phlegm).