绰 (chāo): to grab, to snatch up, (bound form) ample, spacious, (literary) graceful

绰 (chāo) is a Chinese character meaning “to grab.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 纟 (semantic) and 卓 (phonetic). It ranks #2708 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 绰 silk. Its radical form 纟 (silk) appears in many related characters such as 系 (xì, to connect), 累 (lěi, to accumulate), 绍 (shào, to continue).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 纟 silk11 strokesFrequency #2708纟 semantic卓 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to grab
  2. to snatch up
  3. (bound form) ample
  4. spacious
  5. (literary) graceful

Etymology & Origin

绰

pictophoneticsilk

Decomposition: ⿰纟卓 (layout: left-right)

Components:纟semantic卓phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
绰号chuò hàonickname
绰绰有余chuò chuò yǒu yú(idiom) more than enough
阔绰kuò chuòextravagant
绰约chuò yuē(literary) graceful
宽绰kuān chuospacious
风姿绰约fēng zī chuò yuē(idiom) graceful
绰名chuò míngnickname
隐隐绰绰yǐn yǐn chuò chuòfaint
8
Total compounds
50
As first character
25
As last character
25
As middle character

绰 appears in 8 compound words: 50 as the first character, 25 as the last, and 25 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 绰 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

号hào
0.57315,126 co-occurrences
萧xiāo
0.412318 co-occurrences
阔kuò
0.398198 co-occurrences
傅fù
0.397402 co-occurrences
恭gōng
0.373258 co-occurrences
吴wú
0.371426 co-occurrences
吕lǚ
0.350186 co-occurrences
楷jiē
0.34972 co-occurrences
爵jué
0.348474 co-occurrences
叫jiào
0.341312 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

绰绰有余chuòchuòyǒuyúHSK 7+

more than sufficient; ample

phrase
风姿绰约fēng zī chuò yuēHSK 7+

(idiom) graceful; lovely

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

绰字在日常生活中使用频率较低。

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

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

Tatoeba

我的剑虽然是钝的，但应付你的话是绰绰有余的。

Wǒ de jiàn suīrán shì dùn de, dàn yìngfu nǐ dehuà shì chuòchuòyǒuyú de.

My sword may be blunt, but that's more than enough for someone like you.

Character Family

纟 Radical Family — Characters sharing the silk radical

绊bàn绑bǎng绷bēng编biān辫biàn缤bīn缠chán绸chóu纯chún缔dì

Related Characters

系xì累lěi绍shào给gěi红hóng级jí纸zhǐ练liàn组zǔ经jīng

Homophones — Characters pronounced chāo

抄chāo钞chāo超chāo巢cháo朝cháo嘲cháo潮cháo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 绰 (chāo) mean in Chinese?
绰 (chāo) primarily means "to grab." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2708 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 绰 and 下?
绰 (chāo) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 绰 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 绰 have?
绰 is written with 11 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 绰?
The radical associated with 绰 is 纟 (silk). This radical appears in many characters related to silk.
What are the components of 绰?
绰 is composed of: 纟 (semantic), 卓 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰纟卓 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 绰?
Common words with 绰 include: 绰号 (chuò hào, "nickname"); 绰绰有余 (chuò chuò yǒu yú, "(idiom) more than enough"); 阔绰 (kuò chuò, "extravagant"); 绰约 (chuò yuē, "(literary) graceful"); 宽绰 (kuān chuo, "spacious"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 绰 (chāo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chāo: 抄 (to make a copy), 钞 (banknote), 超 (to exceed), 巢 (nest), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 绰 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 绰 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.