糙 (cāo): rough, coarse (in texture)

糙 (cāo) is a Chinese character meaning “rough.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 米 (semantic) and 造 (phonetic). It ranks #2807 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 糙 rice. Its radical form 米 (rice) appears in many related characters such as 米 (mǐ, uncooked rice), 类 (lèi, kind), 精 (jīng, essence).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. rough
  2. coarse (in texture)

Etymology & Origin

糙

pictophoneticrice

Decomposition: ⿰米造 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
粗糙adjectivecū cāocrude
糙米nouncāo mǐbrown rice
糙面内质网nouncāo miàn nèi zhì wǎngrough endoplasmic reticulum
糙皮病nouncāo pí bìngpellagra (medicine)
4
Total compounds
75
As first character
25
As last character
0
As middle character

糙 appears in 4 compound words: 75 as the first character, 25 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 糙 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

粗cū
0.7566,324 co-occurrences
肤fū
0.506200 co-occurrences
岖qū
0.48844 co-occurrences
坷kē
0.44922 co-occurrences
皮pí
0.430490 co-occurrences
豚tún
0.41154 co-occurrences
毛máo
0.395316 co-occurrences
呈chéng
0.372182 co-occurrences
较jiào
0.368218 co-occurrences
棕zōng
0.36054 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

糙字在日常生活中使用频率较低。

cāo zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ jiào dī .

The character "糙" is not commonly used in everyday life.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

深度|这么糙的《牛来》为什么能公映?听专业人士详解

shēn dù zhè má cāo de niú lái wéi shén má néng gōng yìng ? tīng zhuān yè rén shì xiáng jiě

In-Depth | Why Was Such a Roughly Made Film as *The Ox Is Coming* Allowed to Be Released? Hear the Experts Explain

少数派Aug 2026

适合冷吃的碳水有:荞麦面、米皮凉皮、糙米/杂粮饭、燕麦。

shì gě lěng chī de tàn shuǐ yǒu : 荞 mài miàn , mǐ pí liáng pí , cāo mǐ zá liáng fàn , yān mài .

Carbohydrates that are good for eating cold include: buckwheat noodles, rice sheets (liangpi), brown rice or multigrain rice, and oats.

爱范儿Aug 2026

不过,贴图还是略显粗糙,经不起细看。

bù guò , tiē tú hái shì lüè xiǎn cū cāo , jīng bù qǐ xì kàn .

However, the textures are still a bit rough and don't hold up under close inspection.

少数派Jul 2026

虽然它还很粗糙,但那种感觉非常奇妙。

suī rán tā hái hěn cū cāo , dàn nà zhǒng gǎn jué fēi cháng qí miào .

Although it's still a bit rough around the edges, the feeling is truly wonderful.

99 健康网Feb 2026

无糖食物一览表包含主食吗?糙米、藜麦是否列入

wú táng shí wù yī lǎn biǎo bāo hán zhǔ shí ma ? cāo mǐ , 藜 mài shì fǒu liè rù

Does the list of sugar-free foods include staple foods? Whether brown rice and quinoa are included

Tatoeba

鲨鱼皮比金枪鱼皮粗糙多了。

Shāyú pí bǐ jīnqiāngyú pí cūcāo duō le.

The skin of a shark is much rougher than that of a tuna fish.

Tatoeba

你更喜欢白米还是糙米呢?

Nǐ gèng xǐhuan báimǐ háishi cāomǐ ne?

Do you prefer white rice or brown rice?

Tatoeba

她的裙子是用粗糙的羊毛造的。

Tā de qúnzi shì yòng cūcāo de yángmáo zào de.

Her dress was made of coarse wool.

Tatoeba

它们是用粗糙的褐色皮革制成的。

Tāmen shì yòng cūcāo de hèsè pígé zhìchéng de.

They were made of rough brown leather.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 米 (rice) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced cāo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 糙 (cāo) mean in Chinese?
糙 (cāo) primarily means "rough." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2807 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 糙 have?
糙 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 糙?
The radical associated with 糙 is 米 (rice). This radical appears in many characters related to rice.
What are the components of 糙?
糙 is composed of: 米 (semantic), 造 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰米造 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 糙?
Common words with 糙 include: 粗糙 (cū cāo, "crude"); 糙米 (cāo mǐ, "brown rice"); 糙面内质网 (cāo miàn nèi zhì wǎng, "rough endoplasmic reticulum"); 糙皮病 (cāo pí bìng, "pellagra (medicine)"). There are over 4 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 糙 (cāo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cāo: 草 (grass), 操 (to grasp), 曹 (Zhou Dynasty vassal state), 槽 (trough). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 糙 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 糙 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 糙 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.