(āo): to boil, to simmer, to cook on a slow fire, to extract by heating, to decoct, to endure

(āo) is a Chinese character meaning “to boil.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #2569 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, fire. Its radical form (fire) appears in many related characters such as (huǒ, fire), (dēng, lamp, light), (yān, smoke).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to boil
  2. to simmer
  3. to cook on a slow fire
  4. to extract by heating
  5. to decoct
  6. to endure

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿱敖灬 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbáo yèto stay up late or all night5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jiān áoto suffer
áo chū tóuto break clear of all the troubles and hardships
áo tou r(coll.) the reward of one's efforts
áo gēng shǒu yèto stay up through the night (idiom)
duō nián xí fù áo chéng pósee 媳婦熬成婆|媳妇熬成婆[xi2 fu4 ao4 cheng2 po2]
nán áo(of pain or hardship) hard to bear
xí fù áo chéng pólit. even a submissive daughter-in-law will one day become a domineering mother-in-law (idiom)
kǔ áoto endure (years of suffering)
áo yàoto decoct medicinal herbs
āo fūpuffed grain
áo gāoto simmer to a paste
áo jiānsuffering
13
Total compounds
62
As first character
23
As last character
15
As middle character

appears in 13 compound words: 62 as the first character, 23 as the last, and 15 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

jiān
0.7322,868 co-occurrences
zhǔ
0.6211,638 co-occurrences
zhōu
0.528270 co-occurrences
0.4801,960 co-occurrences
tāng
0.426258 co-occurrences
guō
0.420114 co-occurrences
tǒng
0.416138 co-occurrences
táng
0.415396 co-occurrences
zhī
0.410138 co-occurrences
0.385306 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

áogēngshǒuyèHSK 5+

to stay up late or all night

verb

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

厨师用猛爆炒,锅里的菜肴香气四溢。

chú shī yòng měng āo bào chǎo , guō lǐ de cài 肴 xiāng qì sì yì .

The chef stir-fried the ingredients over high heat, filling the kitchen with the aroma of the cooking dish.

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Mar 2026

久坐夜“血便半年”未就医 女子大肠癌中晚期已...

jiǔ zuò āo yè xiě biàn bàn nián wèi jiù yī nǚ zǐ dà cháng ái zhōng wǎn qī yǐ . . .

After six months of bloody stools caused by prolonged sitting and late nights without seeking medical attention, a woman has been diagnosed with mid-to-late-stage colon cancer...

SmzdmMar 2026

...,是人生的重启键 睡前听书,治愈焦虑。总夜、睡不好?《我们为什么要睡觉》告诉你:...

. . . , shì rén shēng de chóng qǐ jiàn shuì qián tīng shū , zhì yù jiāo lǜ . zǒng āo yè , shuì bù hǎo ? wǒ men wéi shén má yāo shuì jué gào sù nǐ : . . .

...is life’s reset button. Listen to audiobooks before bed to ease anxiety. Do you stay up late and struggle to sleep? *Why We Sleep* explains:...

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Mar 2026

夜+宵夜”,双重伤身可不行

āo yè xiāo yè , shuāng chóng shāng shēn kě bù háng

"Staying up late and eating late-night snacks"—this double whammy is bad for your health

新西兰中文先驱网Mar 2026

霍尔木兹海峡,干了中产清明五一

huò ěr mù zī hǎi xiá , āo gān le zhōng chǎn qīng míng wǔ yī

The Strait of Hormuz: Draining the Middle Class During Qingming and May Day

99 健康网Mar 2026

少女第一次做ae一般多少秒正常?夜剪辑会扰乱褪黑素和激素节律吗

shǎo nǚ dì yī cì zuò a e yī bān duō shǎo miǎo zhèng cháng ? āo yè jiǎn jí huì rǎo luàn 褪 hēi sù hé jī sù jié lǜ ma

How many seconds is normal for a girl to do AE for the first time? Does staying up late to edit disrupt melatonin and hormone rhythms?

Tatoeba

晚上夜到这么晚不好。

Wǎnshang áoyè dào zhème wǎn bù hǎo.

It's not a good idea to stay up at night for so long.

Tatoeba

妈妈总是告诉我晚上不要夜太晚。

Māma zǒngshì gàosu wǒ wǎnshang bù yào áoyè tài wǎn.

Mother always tells me not to sit up late at night.

Tatoeba

他经常在晚上夜。

Tā jīngcháng zài wǎnshang áoyè.

He often stays up late at night.

Tatoeba

我哥哥经常夜看小说。

Wǒ gēge jīngcháng áoyè kàn xiǎoshuō.

My brother would often stay up all night reading novels.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced āo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 熬 (āo) mean in Chinese?
熬 (āo) primarily means "to boil." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2569 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 熬 and 快?
熬 (āo) and 快 (kuài) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 熬 (slow) vs 快 (fast).
How many strokes does 熬 have?
熬 is written with 15 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 熬?
The radical associated with 熬 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 熬?
熬 is composed of: 敖 (phonetic), 灬 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱敖灬 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 熬?
Common words with 熬 include: 煎熬 (jiān áo, "to suffer"); 熬夜 (áo yè, "to stay up late or all night"); 熬出头 (áo chū tóu, "to break clear of all the troubles and hardships"); 熬头儿 (áo tou r, "(coll.) the reward of one's efforts"); 熬更守夜 (áo gēng shǒu yè, "to stay up through the night (idiom)"). There are over 13 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 熬 (āo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation āo: 傲 (proud), 凹 (concave), 奥 ((bound form) Austria (abbr. for 奧地利|奥地利)), 澳 (Macao (abbr. for 澳門|澳门)). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 熬 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 熬 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.