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).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 氵 water15 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proper-nounào dà lì yàAustralia
澳洲proper-nounào zhōuAustralia
澳门proper-nounào ménMacao or Macau, special administrative region (SAR) of the PRC (short name 澳)
澳大利亚联邦proper-nounào 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proper-nounxī 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 zhōu(geography) the Australian continent (Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea)
澳新军团ào xīn jūn tuánAustralian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC)
47
Total compounds
57
As first character
17
As last character
26
As middle character

澳 appears in 47 compound words: 57 as the first character, 17 as the last, and 26 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
0.59452,642 co-occurrences
亚yà
0.54245,561 co-occurrences
港gǎng
0.51335,942 co-occurrences
利lì
0.49869,404 co-occurrences
坊fāng
0.47211 co-occurrences
大dà
0.46681,858 co-occurrences
门mén
0.44911,998 co-occurrences
珠zhū
0.4214,388 co-occurrences
粤yuè
0.404904 co-occurrences
臭chòu
0.40210 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

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

没méi活huó海hǎi清qīng消xiāo流liú满mǎn注zhù激jī洛luò

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

奥ào傲ào熬áo凹āo

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 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 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"); 澳门 (ào mén, "Macao or Macau, special administrative region (SAR) of the PRC (short name 澳)"); 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 47 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 澳 (ào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation ào: 奥 ((bound form) Austria (abbr. for 奧地利|奥地利)), 傲 (proud), 熬 (to cook on a slow fire), 凹 (concave). 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

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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.