(cáo): trough, manger, groove

(cáo) is a Chinese character meaning “trough.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2742 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, wood. Its radical form (tree) appears in many related characters such as (běn, (bound form) root), (, machine, opportunity), (tiáo, strip).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. trough
  2. manger
  3. groove

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwood

Decomposition: ⿰木曹 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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
shuǐ cáosink
tiào cáoto leave one's job to take up a position elsewhere
āo cáorecess
gōu cáogroove
shí cáomanger
cáo yá(coll.) molar
sān mǎ tóng cáothree horses at the same trough (idiom, alluding to Sima Yi 司馬懿|司马懿[Si1 ma3 Yi4] and his two sons)
tù cáo dà huìRoast! (PRC comedy series)
shuǐ luò guī cáospilt water returns to the trough (idiom)
cáo diǎn(slang) an aspect that invites ridicule (e.g. a film's plot inconsistencies or unrealistic character behavior)
cáo tóufeeding trough in stable
niú jì tóng cáocow and famous steed at the same trough (idiom)
cáo wèislot
mǎ cáomanger
cáo chētanker (truck)
32
Total compounds
31
As first character
66
As last character
3
As middle character

appears in 32 compound words: 31 as the first character, 66 as the last, and 3 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.

āo
0.6738,316 co-occurrences
0.6289,915 co-occurrences
chā
0.5679,810 co-occurrences
tiào
0.5297,090 co-occurrences
gōu
0.4972,742 co-occurrences
è
0.459378 co-occurrences
齿chǐ
0.4571,284 co-occurrences
0.4172,262 co-occurrences
huá
0.4031,782 co-occurrences
guàn
0.397426 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

shuǐ luò guī cáoHSK 7+

spilt water returns to the trough (idiom); fig. people remember where they belong

phrase

Showing 1 of 3 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

爷爷在门前种了一棵苗,现在已经长得很高了。

yé yé zài mén qián zhǒng le yī kē cáo miáo , xiàn zài yǐ jīng cháng dé hěn gāo le .

Grandpa planted a sapling by the door, and now it has grown quite tall.

It之家Feb 2026

...5 处理器、3.5mm 耳机孔、SD 卡

. . . 5 chǔ lǐ qì , 3 . 5 m m ěr jī kǒng , S D kǎ cáo

... 5 processor, 3.5mm headphone jack, SD card slot

NewtalkFeb 2026

化学车擦撞护栏 国1五堵段回堵4公里

huà xué cáo chē cā zhuàng hù lán guó 1 wǔ dǔ duàn huí dǔ 4 gōng lǐ

The chemical tank truck collided with the guardrail and the five blocking sections of National 1 blocked 4 kilometers

TvbsFeb 2026

年后跳快看!劳动部祭“课程奖励金”条件曝 最高...

nián hòu tiào cáo kuài kàn ! láo dòng bù jì kè chéng jiǎng lì jīn tiáo jiàn pù zuì gāo . . .

Jump to work after the year! The conditions of the Ministry of Labor's "course incentives" are exposed to the highest...

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Feb 2026

诗巫肥料罗里追尾油罗里 乘客不幸丧命 两人受伤

shī wū féi liào luó lǐ zhuī wěi yóu cáo luó lǐ chéng kè bù xìng sāng mìng liǎng rén shòu shāng

Sibu Fertilizer Rory rear-ended the oil tank Rory, the passenger was killed, and two others were injured

GvmFeb 2026

过完年后该不该跳?先问自己五个“关键问题”

guò wán nián hòu gāi bù gāi tiào cáo ? xiān wèn zì jǐ wǔ gè guān jiàn wèn tí

Should I change jobs after the New Year? Ask yourself five "key questions" first

Tatoeba

惠子巧妙地把碗碟迭起再拿到水

Huì zǐ qiǎomiàodi bǎ wǎn dié diéqǐ zài ná dào shuǐcáo.

Keiko deftly piles up the dishes and takes them to the sink.

Tatoeba

到洗涤去帮忙洗碗盘吧!

Dào xǐdícáo qù bāngmáng xǐwǎn pán ba!

Go and help wash up at the sink!

Tatoeba

齐里需要小苏打,用来清洁他的厨房水

Qí lǐ xūyào xiǎosūdá, yònglái qīngjié tā de chúfáng shuǐcáo.

Ziri needs baking soda to clean his kitchen sink.

Tatoeba

家里的洗碗机算是厨房水旁洗碗工的对手。

Jiālǐ de xǐ wǎn jī suànshì chúfáng shuǐcáo páng xǐ wǎn gōng de duìshǒu.

The washing-up machine at home was regarded as a rival to the worker at the kitchen sink.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced cáo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 槽 (cáo) mean in Chinese?
槽 (cáo) primarily means "trough." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2742 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 槽 and 糟?
槽 (cáo) and 糟 (zāo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 木 vs 米 (same 曹 component).
How many strokes does 槽 have?
槽 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 槽?
The radical associated with 槽 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 槽?
槽 is composed of: 木 (semantic), 曹 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰木曹 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 槽?
Common words with 槽 include: 水槽 (shuǐ cáo, "sink"); 跳槽 (tiào cáo, "to leave one's job to take up a position elsewhere"); 凹槽 (āo cáo, "recess"); 沟槽 (gōu cáo, "groove"); 食槽 (shí cáo, "manger"). There are over 32 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 槽 (cáo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cáo: 嘈 (bustling), 操 (to grasp), 糙 (rough), 曹 (Zhou Dynasty vassal state), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 槽 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 槽 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.