(jiāo): lovable, pampered, tender

(jiāo) is a Chinese character meaning “lovable.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2111 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

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

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. lovable
  2. pampered
  3. tender

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwoman

Decomposition: ⿰女乔 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jiāo xiǎopetite
jiāo shēng guàn yǎngpampered and spoiled since childhood
jiāo qìdelicate
sā jiāoto act like a spoiled child
jiāo guànto pamper
jiāo nentender and lovely
jiāo guìpampered
jiāo ruòdelicate
jiāo yàntender and beautiful
jiāo mèiflirtatious
jiāo zòngto indulge (a child)
jiāo dī dīsweet
jiāo xiūbashful
jiāo chǒngto indulge
jiāo měidainty
36
Total compounds
69
As first character
14
As last character
17
As middle character

appears in 36 compound words: 69 as the first character, 14 as the last, and 17 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.

ào
0.544960 co-occurrences
dèng
0.474552 co-occurrences
yàn
0.473210 co-occurrences
qiào
0.469138 co-occurrences
0.465720 co-occurrences
0.436318 co-occurrences
fèng
0.434450 co-occurrences
kuàng
0.43372 co-occurrences
guàn
0.419186 co-occurrences
mèi
0.416114 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

bǎi mèi qiān jiāoHSK 7+

see 千嬌百媚|千娇百媚[qian1 jiao1 bai3 mei4]

phrase
jiāoshēngguànyǎngHSK 7+

having been indulged and spoiled since childhood

phrase
jīnwūcángjiāoHSK 7+

to take a concubine or wife; to keep a mistress in a tucked away in a luxurious house or apartment

phrase
qiān jiāo bǎi mèiHSK 7+

(idiom) (of a woman) bewitching; charming

phrase
xiāng jiāo yù nènHSK 7+

a beautiful woman

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

娲补天的故事在中国流传了几千年。

jiāo 娲 bǔ tiān de gù shì zài zhōng guó liú chuán le jī qiān nián .

The legend of Nuwa patching the sky has been passed down for thousands of years in China.

Hk01.comMar 2026

卧底娃|出镜被网民狠批“乜水嚟㗎” 林夕童入...

wò de jiāo wá chū jìng bèi wǎng mín hěn pī 乜 shuǐ 嚟 lín xī tóng rù . . .

Undercover Beauty | Criticized by Netizens for Looking "Waterlogged" in Public Appearance; Lin Xitong Joins...

Hk01.comFeb 2026

卧底娃6-10集剧情丨陈滢揭李海铜死因疑团、...

wò de jiāo wá 6 1 0 jí jù qíng 丨 chén 滢 jiē lǐ hǎi tóng sǐ yīn yí tuán , . . .

Undercover Jiao Wa Episode 6-10 Plot丨Chen Ying reveals the suspicion of Li Haitong's death、...

Am730Feb 2026

卧底娃|陈滢“黄金32C”画面爆回响 与李海...

wò de jiāo wá chén 滢 huáng jīn 3 2 C huà miàn bào huí xiǎng yǔ lǐ hǎi . . .

Chen Ying's "Golden 32C" picture reverberated with Lehi...

Investing 香港Feb 2026

拜耳控告生前列腺癌药物广告涉虚假宣传

bài ěr kòng gào jiāo shēng qián liè xiàn ái yào wù guǎng gào shè xū jiǎ xuān chuán

Bayer accused Johnson & Johnson of false publicity in advertising prostate cancer drugs

Investing 香港Feb 2026

生获欧盟批准Rybrevant皮下注射给...

jiāo shēng huò ōu méng pī zhǔn R y b r e v a n t pí xià zhù shè gěi . . .

Johnson & Johnson was approved by the European Union for subcutaneous injection of Rybrevant into...

Tatoeba

她确实年轻貌美,但她体质弱。

Tā quèshí niánqīng màoměi, dàn tā tǐzhì jiāoruò.

Indeed she is young and beautiful, but she is in delicate health.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiāo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 娇 (jiāo) mean in Chinese?
娇 (jiāo) primarily means "lovable." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2111 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 娇 and 桥?
娇 (jiāo) and 桥 (qiáo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 女 vs 木 (same 乔 component).
How many strokes does 娇 have?
娇 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 娇?
The radical associated with 娇 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 娇?
娇 is composed of: 女 (semantic), 乔 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女乔 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 娇?
Common words with 娇 include: 娇小 (jiāo xiǎo, "petite"); 娇生惯养 (jiāo shēng guàn yǎng, "pampered and spoiled since childhood"); 娇气 (jiāo qì, "delicate"); 撒娇 (sā jiāo, "to act like a spoiled child"); 娇惯 (jiāo guàn, "to pamper"). There are over 36 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 娇 (jiāo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiāo: 交 (to hand over), 郊 (suburbs), 胶 (to glue), 蕉 (banana), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 娇 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 娇 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.