嘈 (cáo): bustling

嘈 (cáo) is a Chinese character meaning “bustling.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 曹 (phonetic). It ranks #3016 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 嘈 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 吃 (chī, to eat), 喝 (hē, to drink).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. bustling

Etymology & Origin

嘈

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口曹 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
嘈杂adjectivecáo zánoisy
嘈杂声nouncáo zá shēngnoise
吐嘈verbtù cáovariant of 吐槽
3
Total compounds
67
As first character
33
As last character
0
As middle character

嘈 appears in 3 compound words: 67 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 0 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 嘈 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

吐tǔ
0.608476 co-occurrences
吵chǎo
0.567142 co-occurrences
杂zá
0.534315 co-occurrences
喧xuān
0.46918 co-occurrences
声shēng
0.36066 co-occurrences
噪zào
0.35410 co-occurrences
环huán
0.34044 co-occurrences
音yīn
0.325156 co-occurrences
弦xián
0.30710 co-occurrences
叫jiào
0.30720 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

孩子们嘈渴了,纷纷跑到饮水机前接水。

hái zǐ men cáo kě le , fēn fēn pǎo dào yǐn shuǐ jī qián jiē shuǐ .

The children were thirsty, so they all rushed to the water cooler to get a drink.

少数派Aug 2026

查找功能依然是基于响声的辅助查找,实际响度一般,稍微嘈杂一点的室内环境就很难听到了。

chá zhǎo gōng néng yī rán shì jī yú xiǎng shēng de fǔ zhù chá zhǎo , shí jì xiǎng dù yī bān , shāo wēi cáo zá yī diǎn de shì nèi huán jìng jiù hěn nán tīng dào le .

The search function is still an audio-based assistive search feature; the volume is generally average, and it’s hard to hear in even slightly noisy indoor environments.

少数派Jun 2026

嘈杂环境中的对比,它对于背景噪音的抑制也属于比较激进的,能够对通话主体有足够的突出。

cáo zá huán jìng zhōng de duì bǐ , tā duì yú bèi jǐng zào yīn de yì zhì yě shǔ yú bǐ jiào jī jìn de , néng gòu duì tōng huà zhǔ tǐ yǒu zú gòu de tū chū .

In noisy environments, it offers aggressive background noise suppression, effectively highlighting the person speaking.

少数派Jun 2026

此外,该模型还具备较强的抗噪能力,可帮助应用适应嘈杂、复杂和不可预测的使用环境。

cǐ wài , gāi mó xíng hái jù bèi jiào qiáng de kàng zào néng lì , kě bāng zhù yīng yòng shì yīng cáo zá , fù zá hé bù kě yù cè de shǐ yòng huán jìng .

In addition, the model features strong noise resistance, which helps the application adapt to noisy, complex, and unpredictable operating environments.

爱范儿Jun 2026

在嘈杂的城市路口,车内车外很难靠喊话来沟通。

zài cáo zá de chéng shì lù kǒu , chē nèi chē wài hěn nán kào hǎn huà lái gōu tōng .

At a noisy city intersection, it's difficult to communicate by shouting between people inside and outside the car.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...诞三女 16岁细女搭飞机播片被斥唔戴耳机嘈到人

. . . dàn sān nǚ 1 6 suì xì nǚ dā fēi jī bō piàn bèi chì 唔 dài ěr jī cáo dào rén

... Three daughters were born A 16-year-old daughter was reprimanded for not wearing headphones while broadcasting a video on a plane

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 口 (mouth) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced cáo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 嘈 (cáo) mean in Chinese?
嘈 (cáo) primarily means "bustling." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3016 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 嘈 and 遭?
嘈 (cáo) and 遭 (zāo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 口 vs 辶 (same 曹 component).
How many strokes does 嘈 have?
嘈 is written with 14 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 嘈?
The radical associated with 嘈 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 嘈?
嘈 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 曹 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口曹 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 嘈?
Common words with 嘈 include: 嘈杂 (cáo zá, "noisy"); 嘈杂声 (cáo zá shēng, "noise"); 吐嘈 (tù cáo, "variant of 吐槽"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 嘈 (cáo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cáo: 槽 (trough). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 嘈 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 嘈 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 嘈 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.