朝 (cháo): abbr. for 朝鮮|朝鲜 Korea, imperial or royal court, government

朝 (cháo) is a Chinese character meaning “imperial or royal court.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 龺 (phonetic) and 月 (semantic). It ranks #593 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 朝 moon. Its radical form 月 (moon) appears in many related characters such as 月 (yuè, moon, month), 有 (yǒu, to have), 朋 (péng, friend).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. abbr. for 朝鮮|朝鲜 Korea
  2. imperial or royal court
  3. government

Etymology & Origin

朝

pictophoneticmoon

Decomposition: ⿰龺月 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 朝

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
朝代nouncháo dàidynasty6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
朝鲜proper-nouncháo xiǎnNorth Korea
朝着cháo zhetowards
王朝nounwáng cháodynasty
朝圣verbcháo shèngto make a pilgrimage
有朝一日yǒu zhāo yī rìone day
朝向verbcháo xiàngtoward
朝廷nouncháo tíngcourt
朝气nounzhāo qìvitality
朝鲜人nouncháo xiǎn réna North Korean
朝拜verbcháo bàito worship
明朝proper-nounmíng zhāotomorrow morning
今朝nounjīn zhāo(dialect) today
朝阳verbcháo yángto be exposed to the sun
秦朝proper-nounqín cháoQin Dynasty (221-207 BC)
朝政nouncháo zhèng(historical) affairs of state at the imperial court
101
Total compounds
48
As first character
44
As last character
9
As middle character

朝 appears in 101 compound words: 48 as the first character, 44 as the last, and 9 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 朝 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

廷tíng
0.64152,224 co-occurrences
鲜xiān
0.63965,985 co-occurrences
清qīng
0.53557,094 co-occurrences
唐táng
0.52826,778 co-occurrences
王wáng
0.50067,018 co-occurrences
宋sòng
0.46313,198 co-occurrences
明míng
0.46049,318 co-occurrences
煮zhǔ
0.43511 co-occurrences
伟wěi
0.43222 co-occurrences
阳yáng
0.42411,740 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (29)

鼻孔朝天bíkǒngcháotiānHSK 7+

to have one's nose in the air; arrogant; haughty

phrase
朝不保夕zhāobùbǎoxīHSK 5+

to be in a critical and desperate situation; to be on the verge of death (or collapse, defeat, etc.)

phrase
朝朝暮暮zhāozhāomùmùHSK 7+

from dawn to dusk; all the time; day after day

phrase
朝过夕改zhāo guò xī gǎiHSK 5+

to correct in the evening a fault of the morning (idiom); to quickly amend one's ways

phrase
朝令夕改zhāolìngxīgǎiHSK 5+

to change frequently and erratically

phrase
朝气蓬勃zhāoqìpéngbóHSK 7+

full of vigor and vitality; spirited

phrase
朝秦暮楚zhāoqínmùchǔHSK 7+

to be quick to switch sides

phrase
朝日新闻zhāo rì xīn wénHSK 5+

Asahi Shimbun (Japanese newspaper)

phrase
朝生暮死zhāo shēng mù sǐHSK 7+

lit. born in the morning and dying at dusk (idiom); fig. ephemeral; transient

phrase
朝思暮想zhāosīmùxiǎngHSK 7+

to yearn for something day and night; to long for something deeply

phrase
朝闻夕改zhāo wén xī gǎiHSK 5+

lit. heard in the morning and changed by the evening; to correct an error very quickly (idiom)

phrase
朝鲜半岛Cháoxiǎn BàndǎoHSK 6+

Korean Peninsula (a peninsula in East Asia, containing the countries of North Korea and South Korea)

Showing 12 of 29 idioms containing 朝.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

朝着目标努力前进,终有一天会实现梦想。

Cháo zhe mùbiāo nǔlì qiánjìn, zhōng yǒu yī tiān huì shíxiàn mèngxiǎng.

Work hard toward your goals, and one day you will achieve your dreams.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

敏感時刻...習近平致電金正恩 鞏固中朝關係

mǐn gǎn 時 kè . . . 習 jìn píng zhì 電 jīn zhèng ēn 鞏 gù zhōng cháo 關 係

At a sensitive moment... Xi Jinping calls Kim Jong Un to consolidate China-North Korea relations

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

敏感時刻 習致電金正恩 鞏固中朝關係

mǐn gǎn 時 kè 習 zhì 電 jīn zhèng ēn 鞏 gù zhōng cháo 關 係

At a sensitive moment, Xi calls Kim Jong Un to consolidate China-North Korea relations

EttodayFeb 2026

...逆襲狂賣32億 韓團CORTIS獻聲引粉朝聖

. . . nì 襲 kuáng 賣 億 韓 團 獻 聲 yǐn fěn cháo 聖

...Surprise Hit Sells 3.2 Billion Copies K-Pop Group CORTIS Lends Their Voices, Drawing Fans on Pilgrimage

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...大宅跟北方煮鍋貼過年 圈中老公杜燕歌係清朝皇族後裔

. . . dà zhái gēn běi fāng zhǔ 鍋 貼 過 nián juān zhōng lǎo gōng dù yān gē 係 qīng cháo huáng zú 後 yì

... The House and the North Cooking Pots Stickers for the New Year

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...嵐陳逸璇Rock爆造型突破自己 許美琪由朝喊到晚有花名

. . . 嵐 陳 yì 璇 bào zào xíng tū pò zì jǐ 許 měi 琪 yóu cháo hǎn dào wǎn yǒu huā míng

... Arashi Chen Yixuan Rock breaks through with her new look, Maggie Hui has a name for herself.

Tatoeba

你去过朝鲜半岛吗?

Nǐ qù guo Cháoxiǎn Bàndǎo ma?

Have you ever been to the Korean Peninsula?

Tatoeba

谁朝我的狗扔的石子?

Shéi cháo wǒ de gǒu rēng de shí zǐ?

Who threw a stone at my dog?

Tatoeba

把这里翻个底朝天!

Bǎ zhèlǐ fān ge dǐcháotiān!

Leave no stone unturned.

Tatoeba

我厌倦了做朝九晚五的工作。

Wǒ yànjuàn le zuò cháo jiǔ wǎn wǔ de gōngzuò.

I'm tired of working a nine-to-five job.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 月 (moon) component

月 Radical Family — Characters sharing the moon radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced cháo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 朝 (cháo) mean in Chinese?
朝 (cháo) primarily means "imperial or royal court." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #593 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 朝 have?
朝 is written with 12 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 朝?
The radical associated with 朝 is 月 (moon). This radical appears in many characters related to moon.
What are the components of 朝?
朝 is composed of: 龺 (phonetic), 月 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰龺月 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 朝?
Common words with 朝 include: 朝鲜 (cháo xiǎn, "North Korea"); 朝着 (cháo zhe, "towards"); 王朝 (wáng cháo, "dynasty"); 朝圣 (cháo shèng, "to make a pilgrimage"); 有朝一日 (yǒu zhāo yī rì, "one day"). There are over 101 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 朝 (cháo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cháo: 超 (to exceed), 潮 (tide), 吵 (to quarrel), 嘲 (to ridicule), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 朝 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 朝 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 朝 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.