(ào): proud, arrogant, to despise

(ào) is a Chinese character meaning “proud.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1933 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, person. Its radical form (person) appears in many related characters such as (rén, person), (shén, what), (jīn, now).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. proud
  2. arrogant
  3. to despise

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticperson

Decomposition: ⿰亻敖 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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
adjective/nounjiāo àopride4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
ào mànarrogant
gāo àoarrogant
zì àoarrogance
ào qìair of arrogance
ào shìto turn up one's nose
kuáng àodomineering
lěng àoicily arrogant
xīn gāo qì àoproud and arrogant
yǐn yǐ wéi àoto be intensely proud of sth (idiom)
使使xū xīn shǐ rén jìn bù , jiāo ào shǐ rén luò hòumodesty leads to progress, arrogance makes you fall behind (quote of Mao Zedong)
jū gōng zì àosatisfied with one's accomplishment and arrogant as a result (idiom)
ào màn yǔ piān jiànPride and Prejudice, novel by Jane Austen 珍·奧斯汀|珍·奥斯汀[Zhen1 · Ao4 si1 ting1]
ào màn wú lǐ(idiom) arrogant
ào rénworthy of pride
ào màn shǎo lǐsee 傲慢無禮|傲慢无礼[ao4 man4 wu2 li3]
35
Total compounds
54
As first character
31
As last character
14
As middle character

appears in 35 compound words: 54 as the first character, 31 as the last, and 14 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.

jiāo
0.7738,811 co-occurrences
màn
0.63615,262 co-occurrences
jiāo
0.544960 co-occurrences
lèng
0.529174 co-occurrences
xiào
0.4853,534 co-occurrences
0.4341,614 co-occurrences
shuāng
0.403396 co-occurrences
juè
0.40378 co-occurrences
lěng
0.3971,626 co-occurrences
kuáng
0.389984 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (11)

àomànwúlǐHSK 4+

arrogant; displaying little respect for others

phrase
ào shì qún lúnHSK 7+

outstanding talent (idiom); incomparable artistic merit; accomplishment out of the ordinary

phrase
ào shuāng dòu xuěHSK 7+

see 欺霜傲雪[qi1 shuang1 ao4 xue3]

phrase
ào xuě líng shuāngHSK 7+

see 欺霜傲雪[qi1 shuang1 ao4 xue3]

phrase
ào xuě qī shuāngHSK 7+

see 欺霜傲雪[qi1 shuang1 ao4 xue3]

phrase
jūgōngzì'àoHSK 4+

to claim credit for oneself and become arrogant

phrase
qī shuāng ào xuěHSK 7+

lit. cold-resistant (idiom); fig. remaining strong in harsh conditions; resilient; unyielding

phrase
qiū jú ào shuāngHSK 7+

the autumn chrysanthemum braves the frost (idiom)

phrase
xīngāoqì'àoHSK 4+

proud and arrogant

phrase
yǐnyǐwéi'àoHSK 4+

to take pride in someone or something

phrase
shì cái ào wùHSK 4+

(idiom) to be inordinately proud of one's ability; to be conceited and contemptuous

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他为人谦虚,从不骄自满。

Tā wéirén qiānxū, cóng bù jiāo'ào zìmǎn.

He is modest and never arrogant or complacent.

Am730Mar 2026

庄III部署上半年推售 展览厅活动吸引过...

bǎi ào zhuāng I I I bù shǔ shàng bàn nián tuī shòu zhǎn lǎn tīng huó dòng xī yǐn guò . . .

Fx168 Finance NetworkMar 2026

每周股票复盘:农生物(603363)推2026年限制性...

měi zhōu gǔ piào fù pán : ào nóng shēng wù ( 6 0 3 3 6 3 ) tuī 2 0 2 6 nián xiàn zhì xìng . . .

Weekly Stock Review: Aonong Biotechnology (603363) Announces 2026 Restricted Stock...

中時新聞網Mar 2026

南部医疗成果视全台!石崇良:强化深耕及健保改革

nán bù yī liáo chéng guǒ ào shì quán tái ! shí chóng liáng : qiáng huà shēn gēng jí jiàn bǎo gǎi gé

Southern Taiwan's Medical Achievements Lead the Nation! Shih Chou-liang: Strengthening Community-Based Care and National Health Insurance Reform

ZaobaoMar 2026

伊朗:首次击中F-35战斗机 打碎美军“慢”

yī lǎng : shǒu cì jī zhōng F 3 5 zhàn dǒu jī dǎ suì měi jūn ào màn

Iran: First-Ever Strike on an F-35 Fighter Jet Shatters U.S. Military "Arrogance"

Yahoo FinanceMar 2026

《港楼》西贡泷挞订货1,755.7万重售 较八年前原...

gǎng lóu xī gòng ào 泷 挞 dìng huò 1 , 7 5 5 . 7 wàn chóng shòu jiào bā nián qián yuán . . .

"Hong Kong Building" Sai Kung Aotung Ta ordered 17.557 million yuan to be resold compared to the original eight years ago...

Tatoeba

玛丽太骄了,不是吗?

Mǎlì tài jiāo'ào le, bùshìma?

Mary is very arrogant, isn't she?

Tatoeba

他很难掩饰对自己成功的骄

Tā hěn nán yǎnshì duì zìjǐ chénggōng de jiāo'ào.

It was difficult for him to hide his pride in his success.

Tatoeba

我无法忍受她慢的态度。

Wǒ wúfǎrěnshòu tā àomàn de tàidu.

I couldn't put up with her arrogant behavior.

Tatoeba

那位女生对自己的美貌感到很骄

Nà wèi nǚshēng duì zìjǐ de měimào gǎndào hěn jiāo'ào.

That girl is arrogant because of her beauty.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced ào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 傲 (ào) mean in Chinese?
傲 (ào) primarily means "proud." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1933 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 傲 have?
傲 is written with 13 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 傲?
The radical associated with 傲 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 傲?
傲 is composed of: 亻 (semantic), 敖 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻敖 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 傲?
Common words with 傲 include: 骄傲 (jiāo ào, "pride"); 傲慢 (ào màn, "arrogant"); 高傲 (gāo ào, "arrogant"); 自傲 (zì ào, "arrogance"); 傲气 (ào qì, "air of arrogance"). There are over 35 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 傲 (ào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation ào: 熬 (to boil), 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 傲 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 傲 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.