Meaning of 潮
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- tide
- damp; moist; humid
- fashionable; trendy
- (coll.) inferior; substandard
How to use 潮
潮 appears in words about tides and waves, like 潮水 (cháoshuǐ) and 潮流 (cháoliú), and it also means damp, as in 潮湿 (cháoshī). In casual speech it describes trendy style. Example: 他的衣服很潮。(Tā de yīfu hěn cháo.) His clothes are really trendy.
潮 has the water radical 氵 on the left, and the right side is 朝 (cháo), which also gives the sound. Picture water rising toward the morning sun: the tide comes in, and everything nearby gets damp.
Common mistake: Learners often leave out the 氵 and write 朝 (cháo, toward; dynasty) instead, since the two sound the same. Remember that 潮 is about water, so it needs the water radical.
潮 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.
潮 cháo · tide · 15 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 潮.
| 高潮 | gāocháo | high tide; high water; upsurge; peak of activity |
| 潮湿 | cháoshī | damp; moist |
| 潮流 | cháoliú | tide; current |
| 新潮 | xīncháo | modern; fashionable |
| 热潮 | rècháo | wave of enthusiasm; craze; upsurge |
| 潮水 | cháoshuǐ | tide |
| 性高潮 | xìnggāocháo | orgasm; climax |
| 浪潮 | làngcháo | wave; tides |
| 潮汐 | cháoxī | tide |
| 涨潮 | zhǎngcháo | high tide; rising tide |
| 低潮 | dīcháo | low tide; low ebb |
| 人潮 | réncháo | a tide of people |
Questions about 潮
What does 潮 mean?
潮 (cháo) means "tide; damp; moist; humid" and is used as a noun and adjective.
How do you write 潮?
潮 is made of 1 character: 潮 (15 strokes). That is 15 strokes in total.
Is 潮 an HSK word?
Yes. 潮 is on the HSK 4 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
Can 潮 be used alone to mean damp?
Yes. In speech people often say 衣服还有点潮 (yīfu hái yǒudiǎn cháo), meaning the clothes are still a bit damp. In writing, 潮湿 (cháoshī) is more common.
What is the difference between 潮 and 新潮 for fashionable?
潮 as trendy is very colloquial and popular with young people, as in 很潮 (hěn cháo). 新潮 (xīncháo) is a more standard word for modern or fashionable and fits both speech and writing.