吵 (chǎo): to quarrel, to make a noise, noisy

吵 (chǎo) is a Chinese character meaning “to quarrel.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 少 (phonetic). It ranks #2009 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 吵 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to quarrel
  2. to make a noise
  3. noisy

Etymology & Origin

吵

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口少 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 吵

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
吵架verbchǎo jiàto quarrel6
争吵verbzhēng chǎoto quarrel6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
吵闹verbchǎo nàonoisy
大吵大闹phrasedà chǎo dà nàoto shout and scream (idiom)
吵嚷verbchǎo rǎngto make a racket
吵嘴verbchǎo zuǐto quarrel
又吵又闹yòu chǎo yòu nàoto make a lot of noise
吵闹声chǎo nào shēngnoise
吵杂chǎo zánoisy
吵醒verbchǎo xǐngto wake sb up with a noise
吵吵verbchāo chaoto make a racket
吵吵嚷嚷chǎo chǎo rǎng rǎngto make an (unnecessary) racket (idiom)
12
Total compounds
75
As first character
8
As last character
17
As middle character

吵 appears in 12 compound words: 75 as the first character, 8 as the last, and 17 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 吵 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

嚷rǎng
0.598134 co-occurrences
嘈cáo
0.567142 co-occurrences
架jià
0.5344,708 co-occurrences
闹nào
0.495465 co-occurrences
争zhēng
0.4492,212 co-occurrences
醒xǐng
0.432359 co-occurrences
嘴zuǐ
0.408192 co-occurrences
喧xuān
0.40332 co-occurrences
烈liè
0.395504 co-occurrences
激jī
0.378344 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

大吵大闹dàchǎodànàoHSK 5+

to create a noisy disturbance; to kick up a fuss; to make a scene

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

隔壁房间太吵了,我无法集中精力工作。

Gébì fángjiān tài chǎo le, wǒ wúfǎ jízhōng jīnglì gōngzuò.

The room next door is too noisy; I can't concentrate on my work.

中時新聞網Mar 2026

沈玉琳出院后重回《热吵店》开工!大聊地狱哏:还好照片彩色的

沈 yù 琳 chū yuàn hòu chóng huí rè chǎo diàn kāi gōng ! dà liáo dì yù 哏 : hái hǎo zhào piàn cǎi sè de

Shen Yulin Returns to Work on *The Hot Talk Show* After Being Discharged from the Hospital! He Talks at Length About His "Hell-Themed Joke": "Thank Goodness the Photo Was in Color"

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Mar 2026

机动车“炸街”、广场舞扰民、夜间违规施工吵人——噪声污染怎么治

jī dòng chē zhà jiē , guǎng chǎng wǔ rǎo mín , yè jiān wéi guī shī gōng chǎo rén — — zào shēng wū rǎn zěn má zhì

Motor vehicles revving their engines, square dancing disturbing the peace, and illegal nighttime construction causing noise—how can noise pollution be addressed?

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

2年报警23次 妇告邻太吵败诉

2 nián bào jǐng 2 3 cì fù gào lín tài chǎo bài sù

In 2 years, the woman called the police 23 times, and the woman sued the neighbor for being too noisy and lost the lawsuit

東森新聞Feb 2026

独家/大年初二邻嫌吵狂砸门找碴 屋主:根本不在

dú jiā dà nián chū èr lín xián chǎo kuáng zá mén zhǎo 碴 wū zhǔ : gēn běn bù zài

Exclusive/On the second day of the Lunar New Year, the neighbor was noisy and smashed the door to find ballast Homeowner: Not at all

百度新闻Feb 2026

欧洲头条丨慕尼黑的沉默,比争吵更刺耳

ōu zhōu tóu tiáo 丨 mù ní hēi de chén mò , bǐ zhēng chǎo gēng cī ěr

European headlines丨Munich's silence, more harsh than the argument

Tatoeba

你又和汤姆吵架了吗?

Nǐ yòu hé Tāngmǔ chǎojià le ma?

Did you have another fight with Tom?

Tatoeba

他被啪啪的敲门声吵醒了。

Tā bèi pā pā de qiāomén shēng chǎoxǐng le.

He was roused by a loud knocking at the door.

Tatoeba

他们的争吵因误解而起。

Tāmen de zhēngchǎo yīn wùjiě ér qǐ.

Their quarrel sprang from misunderstanding.

Tatoeba

他告诫他们不要吵闹。

Tā gàojiè tāmen bù yào chǎonào.

He admonished them for being noisy.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 口 (mouth) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced chǎo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 吵 (chǎo) mean in Chinese?
吵 (chǎo) primarily means "to quarrel." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2009 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 吵 and 寂?
吵 (chǎo) and 寂 (jì) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 吵 (noisy) vs 寂 (quiet).
How many strokes does 吵 have?
吵 is written with 7 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 吵?
The radical associated with 吵 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 吵?
吵 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 少 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口少 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 吵?
Common words with 吵 include: 吵架 (chǎo jià, "to quarrel"); 争吵 (zhēng chǎo, "to quarrel"); 吵闹 (chǎo nào, "noisy"); 大吵大闹 (dà chǎo dà nào, "to shout and scream (idiom)"); 吵嚷 (chǎo rǎng, "to make a racket"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 吵 (chǎo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chǎo: 抄 (to make a copy), 炒 (to stir-fry), 钞 (banknote), 超 (to exceed), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 吵 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 吵 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 吵 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.