(hǎo): good

(hǎo) is a Chinese character meaning “good.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #82 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a woman 女 with a son 子. Its radical form (woman) appears in many related characters such as (, woman), (nǎi, grandmother, milk), (, she).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. good

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA woman 女 with a son 子

Decomposition: ⿰女子 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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
verb/adverbhǎo xiàngas if3
adjective/adverbhǎo hǎowell4
bù hǎo yì sito feel embarrassed2
nounhǎo yùngood luck5
adjectiveměi hǎobeautiful4
adjective/adverbzhèng hǎojust (in time)4
nounhǎo chǔeasy to get along with4
numeralhǎo duōmany3
adjectivehǎo kàngood-looking1
nǐ hǎohello1
adjectivehǎo chītasty1
adjectivehào qíinquisitive5
adjectivehǎo xiàolaughable4
adjectivehǎo jiǔquite a while3
adverbzuì hǎobest3
adjective/adverbgāng hǎojust5
adjectiveyǒu hǎofriendly4
adjectiveliáng hǎogood5
adverbzhǐ hǎoto have no other option but to ...4
verb/nounài hàoto like2
adjectivehǎo tīngpleasant to hear1
verbhǎo zhuǎnto improve5
particleyě hǎothat's fine6
adverbqià hǎoas it turns out6
verbkān hǎoto keep an eye on6
nounhǎo gǎngood opinion6
adjectivehǎo wán rerhua variant of 好玩[hao3 wan2]1
adverbhǎo bùnot at all ...6
nounhǎo píngfavorable criticism5
adjectivehào kèhospitality6
qīn péng hǎo yǒufriends and family5
adjectivehǎo róng yì(idiomatic usage) with great difficulty6
verbhǎo xuéeasy to learn6
100
Total compounds
73
As first character
25
As last character
2
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 73 as the first character, 25 as the last, and 2 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.

yǒu
0.671352,398 co-occurrences
liáng
0.573132,491 co-occurrences
qià
0.50819,866 co-occurrences
péng
0.50545,672 co-occurrences
0.49434,374 co-occurrences
shì
0.4938,301 co-occurrences
hěn
0.47082,812 co-occurrences
zuò
0.45354,504 co-occurrences
ài
0.44736,084 co-occurrences
piān
0.44026,592 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (36)

ē qí suǒ hàoHSK 3+

to pander to sb's whims

phrase
bùhǎoyìsiHSK 2+

embarrassed; shy; ill at ease; too embarrassed or shy to do something

adjective
怀bùhuáihǎoyìHSK 4+

to harbor bad intentions

phrase
bùshíhǎodǎiHSK 7+

synonym of 不知好歹 (bùzhīhǎodǎi)

adjective
bùzhīhǎodǎiHSK 7+

cannot tell good from bad; to mistake good for bad; to be unable to see others' good intentions

phrase
gèyǒusuǒhàoHSK 4+

there's no accounting for taste; to each his own; different strokes for different folks; chacun à son goût

phrase
gōng zhū tóng hàoHSK 6+

to share pleasure in the company of others (idiom); shared enjoyment with fellow enthusiasts

phrase
hǎobùróngyìHSK 3+

very difficult

adjective
hàochīlǎnzuòHSK 4+

to be fond of eating and averse to work; to be piggish

phrase
hàodàxǐgōngHSK 4+

to crave greatness and success; to rejoice in grandiose deeds

phrase
hǎohǎo xiānshengHSK 1+

yes man

noun
hǎojǐngbùchángHSK 4+

good things do not last forever

phrase

Showing 12 of 36 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个方案很,既节省了成本,又提高了效率。

Zhè gè fāng'àn hěn hǎo, jì jiéshěng le chéngběn, yòu tígāo le xiàolǜ.

This plan is very good; it saves costs while improving efficiency.

百度新闻Feb 2026

视频丨繁荣昌盛,越来越!这个春节听听大家给祖国的..

shì pín 丨 fán róng chāng shèng , yuè lái yuè hǎo ! zhè gè chūn jié tīng tīng dà jiā gěi zǔ guó de . .

Video丨Prosperity and prosperity, getting better and better! This Spring Festival, listen to what everyone has for the motherland:

百度新闻Feb 2026

繁荣昌盛,越来越!这个春节听听大家给祖国的祝福

fán róng chāng shèng , yuè lái yuè hǎo ! zhè gè chūn jié tīng tīng dà jiā gěi zǔ guó de zhù fú

Prosperity and prosperity, better and better! This Spring Festival, listen to everyone's blessings to the motherland

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春纳福迎新,就来凯德虹口商业中心,福气物一站式..

xīn chūn nà fú yíng xīn , jiù lái kǎi dé hóng kǒu shāng yè zhōng xīn , fú qì hǎo wù yī zhàn shì . .

Come to CapitaLand Hongkou Commercial Center for a one-stop shop for good fortune and good fortune....

百度新闻Feb 2026

金牌,苏翊鸣送给自己最的生日礼物!

jīn pái , sū 翊 míng sòng gěi zì jǐ zuì hǎo de shēng rì lǐ wù !

Gold Medal: Su Yiming's Best Birthday Gift to Himself!

百度新闻Feb 2026

轻型战斗机,五星评?

qīng xíng zhàn dǒu jī , wǔ xīng hǎo píng ?

Lightweight fighter jet, five-star rating?

Tatoeba

汤姆!你什么时候来的?

Nǐhǎo Tāngmǔ! nǐ shénmeshíhou lái de?

Hello Tom! When did you come?

Tatoeba

!你还在那里吗?

Nǐhǎo! nǐ hái zài nàli ma?

Hello! Are you still there?

Tatoeba

这么做有什么处吗?

Zhème zuò yǒu shénme hǎochu ma?

Does doing things in this way have a benefit?

Tatoeba

这是份报纸,不是吗?

Zhè shì fèn hǎo bàozhǐ, bùshìma?

This is a good newspaper, isn't it?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced hǎo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 好 (hǎo) mean in Chinese?
好 (hǎo) primarily means "good." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #82 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 好 and 坏?
好 (hǎo) and 坏 (huài) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 好 (good) vs 坏 (bad).
How many strokes does 好 have?
好 is written with 6 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 好?
The radical associated with 好 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 好?
好 is composed of: 女 (structural), 子 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女子 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 好?
Common words with 好 include: 好像 (hǎo xiàng, "as if"); 好好 (hǎo hǎo, "well"); 不好意思 (bù hǎo yì si, "to feel embarrassed"); 不好 (bù hǎo, "no good"); 好运 (hǎo yùn, "good luck"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 好 (hǎo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hǎo: 毫 (hair), 豪 (grand), 号 (ordinal number), 浩 (grand), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 好 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 好 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.