(ào): (bound form) Austria (abbr. for 奧地利|奥地利), (bound form) Olympics (abbr. for 奧林匹克|奥林匹克), obscure

(ào) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) austria (abbr. for 奧地利|奥地利).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical (big). It ranks #972 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a person 大 discovering a house 宀 full of rice 米. Its radical form (big) appears in many related characters such as (, big), (tiān, day), (tài, highest).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: big12 strokesFrequency #972

Definitions

  1. (bound form) Austria (abbr. for 奧地利|奥地利)
  2. (bound form) Olympics (abbr. for 奧林匹克|奥林匹克)
  3. obscure

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA person 大 discovering a house 宀 full of rice 米

Decomposition: ⿱⿵宀米大 (layout: top-bottom)

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

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
ào sī kǎ(film industry) Oscar (Academy Award)
ào sī tīngAustin or Austen (name)
ào yùn huìOlympic Games
ào dì lìAustria
ào lín pǐ kèOlympic
ào kè lánAuckland (New Zealand city)
ào mǎ hāOmaha
ào yùnOlympic Games
ào lán duōOrlando
ào bù lǐAubrey (name)
ào sī dīngAustin or Austen (name)
ào lì wéi yàOlivia (name)
ào dài lìAudrey
ào mìsecret
shēn àoprofound
100
Total compounds
79
As first character
10
As last character
11
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 79 as the first character, 10 as the last, and 11 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.

0.60954,972 co-occurrences
yùn
0.603180,882 co-occurrences
0.53310 co-occurrences
ěr
0.523140,226 co-occurrences
dōng
0.51129,069 co-occurrences
0.503197,148 co-occurrences
0.501143,112 co-occurrences
duó
0.48913 co-occurrences
cán
0.47511,982 co-occurrences
huì
0.465109,206 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

ÀodéxiūsīHSK 7+

Odysseus

Ào'ěrbāníHSK 7+

Albany (a city, the state capital of New York, United States); a transliteration of the English surname Albany

ÀogǔsīdūHSK 7+

Augustus

ÀogǔsītǎHSK 7+

Augusta (a city, the state capital of Maine, United States)

àolínpǐkèHSK 7+

Olympics; Olympiad (science competition)

noun
ÀosīwēixīnHSK 7+

Auschwitz (a city in Poland); Auschwitz (the concentration camp)

Ào-Xiōng DìguóHSK 7+

Austria-Hungary (a former multi-ethnic empire and country in Central Europe existing from 1867 to 1918)

Showing 7 of 8 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

ào zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character "奥" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

百度新闻Feb 2026

米兰冬|有爱人也有惺惺相惜的对手,王心迪与瑞士...

mǐ lán dōng ào yǒu ài rén yě yǒu 惺 惺 xiāng xī de duì shǒu , wáng xīn dí yǔ ruì shì . . .

Milan Winter Olympics|There are lovers and sympathetic opponents, Wang Xindi and Switzerland...

百度新闻Feb 2026

会|速滑综合:荷兰老将德容四战运首夺金

dōng ào huì sù huá zèng gě : hé lán lǎo jiāng dé róng sì zhàn ào yùn shǒu duó jīn

Winter Olympics|Speed skating comprehensive: Dutch veteran De Jong won his first gold medal in four Olympic games

百度新闻Feb 2026

会|家乡连线:“我儿子是冠军!”——宁忠...

dōng ào huì jiā xiāng lián xiàn : wǒ ér zǐ shì guàn jūn ! — — nìng zhōng . . .

Winter Olympics|Hometown Connection: "My son is a champion!" ——Ning Zhong...

百度新闻Feb 2026

会|家乡连线:“最强夫妻档”!电影都不敢...

dōng ào huì jiā xiāng lián xiàn : zuì qiáng fū qī dàng ! diàn yǐng dōu bù gǎn . . .

Winter Olympics|Hometown Connection: "The Strongest Husband and Wife"! The movie doesn't dare...

百度新闻Feb 2026

跨区出行需求活跃,冬会带火冰雪旅游热

kuà qū chū háng xū qiú huó yuè , dōng ào huì dài huǒ bīng xuě lǚ yóu rè

The demand for cross-regional travel is active, and the Winter Olympics will bring fire to ice and snow tourism

Tatoeba

谁能揭开海洋的秘?

Shéi néng jiēkāi hǎiyáng de àomì?

Who is able to reveal the mysteries of the sea?

Tatoeba

林匹斯山? 那不是希腊众神鬼混的地方?

ào lín pǐ sī shān? nà bù shì Xīlà zhòng shén guǐhùn de dìfang?

Olympus? Isn't that where Greek gods hang out or something?

Tatoeba

玛丽海特本周在纽良。

Mǎlì Hǎitè běn zhōu zài Niǔ'àoliáng.

Mary Hat was in New Orleans this week.

Tatoeba

克劳迪留着长发,而且抽大麻。

Kè láo Dí'ào liú zhe chángfà, érqiě chōu dàmá.

Claudio had long hair and smoked pot.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced ào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 奥 (ào) mean in Chinese?
奥 (ào) primarily means "(bound form) austria (abbr. for 奧地利|奥地利)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #972 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 奥 have?
奥 is written with 12 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 奥?
The radical associated with 奥 is 大 (big). This radical appears in many characters related to big.
What are common words containing 奥?
Common words with 奥 include: 奥斯卡 (ào sī kǎ, "(film industry) Oscar (Academy Award)"); 奥斯汀 (ào sī tīng, "Austin or Austen (name)"); 奥运会 (ào yùn huì, "Olympic Games"); 奥地利 (ào dì lì, "Austria"); 奥林匹克 (ào lín pǐ kè, "Olympic"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 奥 (ào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation ào: 凹 (concave), 熬 (to boil), 傲 (proud), 澳 (Macao (abbr. for 澳門|澳门)). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 奥 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 奥 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.