姣 (jiāo): surname Jiao, cunning, pretty

姣 (jiāo) is a Chinese character meaning “cunning.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 女 (semantic) and 交 (phonetic). It ranks #4563 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 姣 woman. Its radical form 女 (woman) appears in many related characters such as 女 (nǚ, woman), 她 (tā, she), 好 (hǎo, good).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. surname Jiao
  2. cunning
  3. pretty

Etymology & Origin

姣

pictophoneticwoman

Decomposition: ⿰女交 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
姣好jiāo hǎo(literary) good-looking
1
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

姣 appears in 1 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·体育Sep 2026

“中华体育精神大讲堂”走进北京校园 奥运冠军巩立姣分享“梦想成真的故事”

zhōng huá tǐ yù jīng shén dà jiǎng táng zǒu jìn běi jīng xiào yuán ào yùn guàn jūn gǒng lì jiāo fēn xiǎng mèng xiǎng chéng zhēn de gù shì

“The Great Lecture Series on the Chinese Sports Spirit” Visits Beijing Schools; Olympic Champion Gong Lijiao Shares Her “Story of a Dream Come True”

中国新闻网·体育Sep 2026

北京田径世锦赛迎倒计时一周年 巩立姣寄语新秀珍惜大赛机会

běi jīng tián jìng shì jǐn sài yíng dǎo jì shí yī zhōu nián gǒng lì jiāo jì yǔ xīn xiù zhēn xī dà sài jī huì

One Year to Go Until the Beijing World Athletics Championships; Gong Lijiao Encourages Up-and-Comers to Cherish the Opportunity to Compete

中国新闻网·生活May 2026

辛凤姣坦言,从实验室的科学发现到成为普通消费者的盘中餐,新质蛋白还需经历系列挑战。

xīn fèng jiāo tǎn yán , cóng shí yàn shì de kē xué fā xiàn dào chéng wéi pǔ tōng xiāo fèi zhě de pán zhōng cān , xīn zhì dàn bái hái xū jīng lì xì liè tiāo zhàn .

Xin Fengjiao admitted that new-quality protein still faces a series of challenges before it can make the leap from scientific discoveries in the laboratory to becoming a meal on the plates of ordinary consumers.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 女 (woman) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiāo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 姣 (jiāo) mean in Chinese?
姣 (jiāo) primarily means "cunning." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #4563 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 姣 and 效?
姣 (jiāo) and 效 (xiào) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 女 vs 攵 (same 交 component).
How many strokes does 姣 have?
姣 is written with 9 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 姣?
The radical associated with 姣 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 姣?
姣 is composed of: 女 (semantic), 交 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女交 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 姣?
Common words with 姣 include: 姣好 (jiāo hǎo, "(literary) good-looking"). There are over 1 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 姣 (jiāo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiāo: 郊 (suburbs), 跤 (a tumble). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 姣 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 姣 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 姣 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.