澳 (ào): Macao (abbr. for 澳門|澳门), Australia (abbr. for 澳大利亞|澳大利亚), deep bay, cove, harbor

澳 (ào) is a Chinese character meaning “macao (abbr. for 澳門|澳门).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 奥 (phonetic). It ranks #1616 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 澳 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 氵 water16 strokesFrequency #1616氵 semantic奥 phonetic

Definitions

  1. Macao (abbr. for 澳門|澳门)
  2. Australia (abbr. for 澳大利亞|澳大利亚)
  3. deep bay
  4. cove
  5. harbor

Etymology & Origin

澳

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵奥 (layout: left-right)

Components:氵semantic奥phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
澳大利亚ào dà lì yàAustralia
澳洲ào zhōuAustralia (abbr. for 澳大利亞洲|澳大利亚洲[Ao4 da4 li4 ya4 Zhou1])
澳门ào ménMacao or Macau, special administrative region (SAR) of the PRC (abbr. to 澳[Ao4])
澳大利亚联邦ào dà lì yà lián bāngCommonwealth of Australia
澳大利亚国立大学ào dà lì yà guó lì dà xuéAustralian National University (ANU), Canberra
澳大利亚首都特区ào dà lì yà shǒu dū tè qūAustralian Capital Territory
澳门立法会ào mén lì fǎ huìLegislative Council of Macao
澳门国际机场ào mén guó jì jī chǎngMacau International Airport
国务院港澳事务办公室guó wù yuàn gǎng ào shì wù bàn gōng shìHong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council
西澳大利亚xī ào dà lì yàWestern Australia, Australian state
西澳大利亚州xī ào dà lì yà zhōuWestern Australia, Australian state
澳新军团日ào xīn jūn tuán rìAnzac Day
南澳大利亚州nán ào dà lì yà zhōuSouth Australia, Australian state
澳大利亚洲ào dà lì yà zhōuAustralia (abbr. to 澳洲[Ao4 zhou1])
澳新军团ào xīn jūn tuánAustralian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC)
50
Total compounds
54
As first character
18
As last character
28
As middle character

澳 appears in 50 compound words: 54 as the first character, 18 as the last, and 28 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 澳 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

洲zhōu
0.618157,661 co-occurrences
亚yà
0.580136,432 co-occurrences
利lì
0.560207,987 co-occurrences
港gǎng
0.521107,826 co-occurrences
大dà
0.473245,574 co-occurrences
门mén
0.45635,994 co-occurrences
珠zhū
0.42713,164 co-occurrences
葡pú
0.4087,014 co-occurrences
粤yuè
0.4022,686 co-occurrences
胶jiāo
0.3943,066 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

站在桥上望去，澳水缓缓向东流去。

zhàn zài qiáo shǎng wàng qù , ào shuǐ huǎn huǎn xiàng dōng liú qù .

Standing on the bridge, one can see the waters of the harbor flowing gently eastward.

StheadlineFeb 2026

将军澳景林邨63岁男子倒毙寓所 单位传臭味保安...

jiāng jūn ào jǐng lín 邨 6 3 suì nán zǐ dǎo bì yù suǒ dān wèi chuán chòu wèi bǎo ān . . .

A 63-year-old man from King Lam Estate, Tseung Kwan O, collapsed to his apartment, and the unit smelled bad...

StheadlineFeb 2026

将军澳景林邨六旬汉倒毙寓所 单位传臭味保安报警...

jiāng jūn ào jǐng lín 邨 liù xún hàn dǎo bì yù suǒ dān wèi chuán chòu wèi bǎo ān bào jǐng . . .

A sixty-year-old man died in his apartment in King Lam Estate, Tseung Kwan O, and the unit reported a stinky security alarm...

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

电影《飞驰人生3》在澳门热映

diàn yǐng fēi chí rén shēng 3 zài ào mén rè yìng

The movie "Flying Life 3" was released in Macau

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

澳洲军舰通过台海 国防部:国际水域享有航行...

ào zhōu jūn jiàn tōng guò tái hǎi guó fáng bù : guó jì shuǐ yù xiǎng yǒu háng háng . . .

Australian warships pass through the Taiwan Strait Ministry of National Defense: International waters enjoy navigation...

三立新聞網Feb 2026

澳洲海军两度通过台湾海峡 国防部回应了

ào zhōu hǎi jūn liǎng dù tōng guò tái wān hǎi xiá guó fáng bù huí yīng le

The Australian Navy passed through the Taiwan Strait twice, and the Ministry of Defense responded

Tatoeba

汤姆去了澳洲几次？

Tāngmǔ qù le àozhōu jǐcì?

How many times has Tom been to Australia?

Tatoeba

悉尼是澳洲最大的城市。

Xīní shì àozhōu zuì dà de chéngshì.

Sydney is the largest city in Australia.

Tatoeba

亚洲比澳洲大很多。

Yàzhōu bǐ àozhōu dà hěn duō.

Asia is much larger than Australia.

Tatoeba

汤姆和我现在在澳洲。

Tāng mǔ hé wǒ xiànzài zài àozhōu.

Tom and I are in Australia now.

Character Family

氵 Radical Family — Characters sharing the water radical

滨bīn濒bīn波bō沧cāng测cè潮cháo澈chè澄chéng池chí淳chún

Related Characters

水shuǐ汉hàn汽qì没méi洗xǐ渴kě永yǒng求qiú河hé油yóu

Homophones — Characters pronounced ào

凹āo熬āo傲ào奥ào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 澳 (ào) mean in Chinese?
澳 (ào) primarily means "macao (abbr. for 澳門|澳门)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1616 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 澳 and 浅?
澳 (ào) and 浅 (qiǎn) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 澳 (deep) vs 浅 (shallow).
How many strokes does 澳 have?
澳 is written with 16 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 澳?
The radical associated with 澳 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 澳?
澳 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 奥 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵奥 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 澳?
Common words with 澳 include: 澳大利亚 (ào dà lì yà, "Australia"); 澳洲 (ào zhōu, "Australia (abbr. for 澳大利亞洲|澳大利亚洲[Ao4 da4 li4 ya4 Zhou1])"); 澳门 (ào mén, "Macao or Macau, special administrative region (SAR) of the PRC (abbr. to 澳[Ao4])"); 澳大利亚联邦 (ào dà lì yà lián bāng, "Commonwealth of Australia"); 澳大利亚国立大学 (ào dà lì yà guó lì dà xué, "Australian National University (ANU), Canberra"). There are over 50 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 澳 (ào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation ào: 凹 (concave), 熬 (to boil), 傲 (proud), 奥 ((bound form) Austria (abbr. for 奧地利|奥地利)). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 澳 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 澳 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 澳 with real-time feedback

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

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

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.