(cǎo): grass

(cǎo) is a Chinese character meaning “grass.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #789 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, grass. Its radical form (grass) appears in many related characters such as (huā, flower), (chá, tea), (cài, vegetable, dish).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. grass

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticgrass

Decomposition: ⿱艹早 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nouncǎo dìlawn3
nouncǎo yuángrassland6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
cǎo méistrawberry
cǎo pínglawn
cǎo shuàicareless
qǐ cǎoto make a draft
cǎo túa sketch
dào cǎorice straw
cǎo yàoherbal medicine
稿cǎo gǎodraft
gān cǎohay
cǎo cóngunderbrush
gān cǎolicorice root
cǎo bāobag made of woven straw
cǎo píturf
cǎo cǎocarelessly
cǎo àndraft (legislation, proposal etc)
100
Total compounds
51
As first character
49
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 51 as the first character, 49 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

lóng
0.67937,470 co-occurrences
zhū
0.65536,636 co-occurrences
yān
0.51913,494 co-occurrences
píng
0.51015,479 co-occurrences
àn
0.50675,150 co-occurrences
cóng
0.5059,000 co-occurrences
dào
0.49010,050 co-occurrences
mào
0.4597,266 co-occurrences
diàn
0.4558,118 co-occurrences
tún
0.45410,380 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (21)

Běncǎo GāngmùHSK 7+

Compendium of Materia Medica

cǎoběn zhíwùHSK 4+

herbaceous plant

noun
cǎocǎoliǎoshìHSK 3+

to deal with a matter carelessly

phrase
cǎomùjiēbīngHSK 7+

Describes a situation in which someone is being overly paranoid: to apprehend danger in every sound

phrase
cùncǎobùshēngHSK 6+

completely barren; completely devoid of vegetation

phrase
dǎcǎojīngshéHSK 5+

to give away your position through rash actions; to alert someone of your presence unwittingly

phrase
dōngchóngxiàcǎoHSK 5+

caterpillar fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis)

noun
fēngchuīcǎodòngHSK 4+

tiny movements and changes

phrase
huāng yān màn cǎoHSK 7+

lit. abandoned by men and choked with weeds; desolate (idiom)

phrase
jī cǎo tún liángHSK 7+

(idiom) to stockpile provisions in preparation for war

phrase
jiǎn cǎo chú gēnHSK 5+

lit. cut grass and pull out roots (idiom); fig. to destroy root and branch; to eradicate

phrase
jiécǎo xiánhuánHSK 7+

to repay a debt (of kindness etc.)

phrase

Showing 12 of 21 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

地上长满了绿色的,春天来了。

Cǎodì shang zhǎngmǎn le lǜsè de cǎo, chūntiān lái le.

The grassland is covered with green grass; spring has come.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

開春喝元氣手搖! 8折爽喝「大苑子莓系列」、「鶴茶樓」新品嚐蜜桃果肉、「青...

開 chūn hē yuán 氣 shǒu 搖 ! zhé shuǎng hē dà 苑 zǐ cǎo 莓 xì liè 鶴 chá 樓 xīn pǐn 嚐 mì táo guǒ ròu qīng . . .

Start the spring with energizing bubble tea! Enjoy 20% off the "Dayuanzi Strawberry Series," try the new "Hetea" peach pulp drinks, and savor the freshness of green tea...

Investing 香港Feb 2026

摩根士丹利推薦值得關注的頂級煙

mó gēn shì dān lì tuī 薦 zhí dé 關 zhù de 頂 級 煙 cǎo gǔ

Morgan Stanley Recommends Top Tobacco Stocks Worth Watching

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

獅潭新鳳吊橋旁 薰衣全面盛開中

獅 tán xīn 鳳 diào 橋 páng 薰 yī cǎo quán miàn shèng 開 zhōng

Lavender in Full Bloom Beside Shitan Xinfeng Suspension Bridge

東森新聞Feb 2026

開工首日開金庫 屯農會發送2088瓶發財水

開 gōng shǒu rì 開 jīn 庫 cǎo tún 農 會 發 sòng píng 發 財 shuǐ

On the first day of work, the vault was opened. Cao-Tun Agricultural Cooperative distributed 2,088 bottles of prosperity water.

東方日報Feb 2026

美高官指如伊朗48小時內提交核協議案 料美伊周五談判

měi gāo guān zhǐ rú yī lǎng xiǎo 時 內 tí jiāo hé 協 議 cǎo àn liào měi yī zhōu wǔ 談 pàn

Senior U.S. Official Says U.S.-Iran Talks Friday if Iran Submits Draft Nuclear Deal in 48 Hours

Tatoeba

原上照顾羊群的人叫什么?

Zài cǎoyuán shàng zhàogu yángqún de rén jiào shénme?

What do you call a man who takes care of sheep in the field?

Tatoeba

你可不可以帮忙除浇花?

Nǐ kě bù kěyǐ bāngmáng chú cǎo jiāo huā?

Could you please pull the weeds and water the flowers?

Tatoeba

你最后一次赤脚在地上走是什么时候?

Nǐ zuìhòu yī cì chìjiǎo zài cǎodì shàng zǒu shì shénme shíhou?

When was the last time you walked barefoot on a meadow?

Tatoeba

我有莓,你想吃吗?

Wǒ yǒu cǎoméi, nǐ xiǎng chī ma?

I have strawberries. Do you want to eat some?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced cǎo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 草 (cǎo) mean in Chinese?
草 (cǎo) primarily means "grass." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #789 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 草 have?
草 is written with 9 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 草?
The radical associated with 草 is 艹 (grass). In fact, 草 is itself the full form of this radical — the simplified radical form 艹 appears as a component in many related characters.
What are the components of 草?
草 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 早 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹早 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 草?
Common words with 草 include: 草莓 (cǎo méi, "strawberry"); 草坪 (cǎo píng, "lawn"); 草地 (cǎo dì, "lawn"); 草率 (cǎo shuài, "careless"); 起草 (qǐ cǎo, "to make a draft"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 草 (cǎo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cǎo: 操 (to grasp), 糙 (rough), 曹 (Zhou Dynasty vassal state), 槽 (trough). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 草 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 草 and the traditional form is 艸.

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.