(jiào): (bound form) to teach, to instruct, a religion, to cause (sb to do sth), to tell (sb to do sth)

(jiào) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) to teach.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #191 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, script. Its radical form (rap) appears in many related characters such as (fàng, to put, to release), (shōu, to receive), (gǎi, to change).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) to teach
  2. to instruct
  3. a religion
  4. to cause (sb to do sth)
  5. to tell (sb to do sth)

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticscript

Decomposition: ⿰孝攵 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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
nounjiào liànto coach4
nounjiào shòuprofessor4
noun/verbjiào yùto educate4
verb/nounjiào xunto provide guidance6
nounjiào shīteacher4
nounjiào shìclassroom2
nounjiāo xuéto teach (as a professor)4
verbqǐng jiàoto ask for guidance5
nounjiào cáiteaching material5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jiào tángchurch
jiāo huìto show
jiào dǎoto instruct
jiào huáng(Catholicism) pope
jiào túdisciple
jiāo shūto work as a teacher
jiào fùgodfather
jiào yǎngto educate
jiào qūdiocese
shuō jiàoto preach
jiào shìchurchman
jiā jiàofamily education
jiào guānmilitary instructor
jiào yìcreed
guǎn jiàoto discipline
100
Total compounds
54
As first character
46
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 54 as the first character, 46 as the last, and 0 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.

0.7821,388,298 co-occurrences
shòu
0.695683,555 co-occurrences
zōng
0.650602,707 co-occurrences
táng
0.595368,481 co-occurrences
liàn
0.593152,184 co-occurrences
yǎng
0.565121,362 co-occurrences
0.550200,858 co-occurrences
0.544213,804 co-occurrences
shùn
0.53789 co-occurrences
0.526125,478 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (22)

bùlìncìjiàoHSK 7+

to not be stinting with comments or criticism

phrase
Zàngchuán FójiàoHSK 5+

Tibetan Buddhism; Vajrayana Buddhism; Lamaism

chūděng jiàoyùHSK 3+

primary education; elementary education

noun
gāoděng jiàoyùHSK 3+

higher education

noun
jīchǔ jiàoyùHSK 4+

basic education

noun
JīdūxīnjiàoHSK 6+

Protestantism (Protestant Christian denomination)

jiātíng jiàoshīHSK 4+

private teacher; tutor

noun
kè zuò jiào shòuHSK 4+

visiting professor; guest professor

phrase
lǚjiàobùgǎiHSK 7+

to have been taught many times, but still do wrong anyway; to be incorrigible

phrase
póluóménjiàoHSK 7+

Brahmanism

noun
pǔtōng jiàoyùHSK 4+

general education

noun
sānjiàojiǔliúHSK 4+

different schools of thought; people from all walks of life

noun

Showing 12 of 22 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他是这个团队的主要负责人,经验丰富。

Tā shì zhè gè tuánduì de zhǔyào fùzé rén, jīngyàn fēngfù.

He is the main person in charge of this team and has rich experience.

WorldjournalFeb 2026

米兰大堂雕像 赞助修复便可有条件借展

mǐ lán dà jiào táng diāo xiàng zàn zhù xiū fù biàn kě yǒu tiáo jiàn jiè zhǎn

Statues of Milan Cathedral can be loaned conditionally if they sponsor the restoration

東方日報Feb 2026

公务员上相亲节目 夸大资产被批评

gōng wù yuán shàng xiāng qīn jié mù kuā dà zī chǎn bèi pī píng jiào yù

Civil servants on blind date shows are criticized for exaggerating assets and education

百度新闻Feb 2026

师发成绩工具Top1-5榜单,一线师亲...

jiào shī fā chéng jì gōng jù T o p 1 5 bǎng dān , yī xiàn jiào shī qīn . . .

Teachers issue the Top 1-5 list of grade tools, and front-line teachers pro...

百度新闻Feb 2026

青岛恒星科技学院:产融合协同出海,绘就全球化新图..

qīng dǎo héng xīng kē jì xué yuàn chǎn jiào róng gě xié tóng chū hǎi , huì jiù quán qiú huā xīn tú . .

Qingdao Stellar Institute of Science and Technology: Industry-Education Integration and Collaboration to Go to Sea, Drawing a New Map of Globalization...

百度新闻Feb 2026

地域文化在国际中文育中的应用

dì yù wén huā zài guó jì zhōng wén jiào yù zhōng de yīng yòng

The Application of Regional Culture in International Chinese Language Education

Tatoeba

是谁她怎么说英语的?

Shì shéi jiāo tā zěnme shuō Yīngyǔ de?

Who taught her how to speak English?

Tatoeba

您能我下国际象棋吗?

Nín néng jiāo wǒ xià guójì xiàngqí ma?

Can you teach me to play chess?

Tatoeba

最近的堂在哪里?

Zuì jìn de jiàotáng zài nǎlǐ?

Where's the nearest church?

Tatoeba

您昨天为什么离开室?

Nín zuótiān wèishénme líkāi jiàoshì?

Why did you leave the classroom yesterday?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 教 (jiào) mean in Chinese?
教 (jiào) primarily means "(bound form) to teach." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #191 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 教 and 学?
教 (jiào) and 学 (xué) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 教 (teach) vs 学 (learn).
How many strokes does 教 have?
教 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 教?
The radical associated with 教 is 攵 (rap). This radical appears in many characters related to rap.
What are the components of 教?
教 is composed of: 孝 (phonetic), 攵 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰孝攵 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 教?
Common words with 教 include: 教堂 (jiào táng, "church"); 教练 (jiào liàn, "to coach"); 教授 (jiào shòu, "professor"); 教育 (jiào yù, "to educate"); 教训 (jiào xun, "to provide guidance"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 教 (jiào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiào: 酵 (yeast), 交 (to hand over), 郊 (suburbs), 骄 (proud), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 教 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 教 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.