(hào): to waste, to spend, to consume

(hào) is a Chinese character meaning “to waste.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1714 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, plow. Its radical form (plow) appears in many related characters such as (gēng, to plow).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to waste
  2. to spend
  3. to consume

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticplow

Decomposition: ⿰耒毛 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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
verbxiāo hàoto consume6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
hào zi(dialect) mouse
hào jìnto exhaust
hào fèito waste
è hàonews of sb's death
sǔn hàowear and tear
hào shítime-consuming
hào zīto spend
xiāo hào pǐnconsumable goods
hào yóu liàngfuel consumption
néng hàoenergy consumption
hào diànto consume electricity
yóu hàofuel consumption
hào sǔnto waste
hào cáiconsumables
xiāo hào zhànwar of attrition
36
Total compounds
42
As first character
39
As last character
19
As middle character

appears in 36 compound words: 42 as the first character, 39 as the last, and 19 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.

xiāo
0.63359,200 co-occurrences
è
0.5902,328 co-occurrences
jǐn
0.5189,786 co-occurrences
sǔn
0.4805,070 co-occurrences
rán
0.4765,784 co-occurrences
yóu
0.4739,516 co-occurrences
fèi
0.4516,300 co-occurrences
0.4359,426 co-occurrences
gōng
0.43212,036 co-occurrences
0.42912,564 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

gǒu ná hào ziHSK 6+

lit. a dog who catches mice; to be meddlesome (idiom)

phrase
hàoziwěizhīHSK 6+

eye dialect spelling of 好自為之 /好自为之

phrase
māo kū hào ziHSK 6+

the cat weeps for the dead mouse (idiom); hypocritical pretence of condolence; crocodile tears

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

xué xí hào zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Mastering the character "耗" requires repeated practice to achieve neat handwriting.

美通社Feb 2026

...r 技术实现更高灵敏度并减少样品与溶剂消

. . . r jì shù shí xiàn gēng gāo líng mǐn dù bìng jiǎn shǎo yàng pǐn yǔ róng jì xiāo hào

... R technology enables higher sensitivity and reduced sample and solvent consumption

InvestingFeb 2026

【早报】仅1纳米、功最低!北大实现芯片领域重要突破;美最高法...

zǎo bào jǐn 1 nà mǐ , gōng hào zuì dī ! běi dà shí xiàn xīn piàn lǐng yù chóng yāo tū pò ; měi zuì gāo fǎ . . .

【Morning Post】Only 1 nanometer, the lowest power consumption! Peking University has achieved an important breakthrough in the field of chips; The U.S. Supreme Court...

Irna ChineseFeb 2026

伊朗武装部队总参谋长:敌人试图以“战略消”动摇体制、打击民众士气

yī lǎng wǔ zhuāng bù duì zǒng cān móu cháng : dí rén shì tú yǐ zhàn lüè xiāo hào dòng yáo tǐ zhì , dǎ jī mín zhòng shì qì

Chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces: The enemy is trying to shake the system and hit the morale of the people with "strategic attrition"

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...蕙81岁母亲初二离世!陈思安忍3天痛揭噩:爸妈天上团聚了

. . . 蕙 8 1 suì mǔ qīn chū èr lí shì ! chén sī ān rěn 3 tiān tòng jiē è hào : bà mā tiān shàng tuán jù le

... Hui's 81-year-old mother passed away on the second day of junior high school! Chen Si'an endured for 3 days to reveal the bad news: his parents were reunited in heaven

Tatoeba

这个引擎用最多的油。

Zhège yǐnqíng hào yòng zuì duō de yóu.

This engine consumes the most oil.

Tatoeba

我们消了所有的自然资源。

Wǒmen xiāohào le suǒyǒu de zìránzīyuán.

We have consumed all the natural resources.

Tatoeba

瑞士人消不少啤酒。

Ruìshìrén xiāohào bù shǎo píjiǔ.

The Swiss consume a large amount of beer.

Tatoeba

有关癌症成因的研究费颇巨。

Yǒuguān áizhèng chéngyīn de yánjiū hàofèi pō jù.

Research on the causes of cancer is very expensive.

Tatoeba

东欧的酒精消量比西欧高。

Dōng ōu de jiǔjīng xiāohàoliàng bǐ Xī'ōu gāo.

Alcohol consumption is higher in Eastern Europe than in Western Europe.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the plow radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced hào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 耗 (hào) mean in Chinese?
耗 (hào) primarily means "to waste." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1714 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 耗 and 髦?
耗 (hào) and 髦 (máo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 耒 vs 髟 (same 毛 component).
How many strokes does 耗 have?
耗 is written with 10 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 耗?
The radical associated with 耗 is 耒 (plow). This radical appears in many characters related to plow.
What are the components of 耗?
耗 is composed of: 耒 (semantic), 毛 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰耒毛 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 耗?
Common words with 耗 include: 耗子 (hào zi, "(dialect) mouse"); 消耗 (xiāo hào, "to consume"); 耗尽 (hào jìn, "to exhaust"); 耗费 (hào fèi, "to waste"); 噩耗 (è hào, "news of sb's death"). There are over 36 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 耗 (hào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hào: 毫 (hair), 豪 (grand), 好 (good), 号 (ordinal number), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 耗 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 耗 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.