(jiào): to check, to collate, to proofread, (bound form) school, college, (bound form) (military) field officer

(jiào) is a Chinese character meaning “to check.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #633 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, wood. Its radical form (tree) appears in many related characters such as (běn, (bound form) root), (, machine, opportunity), (tiáo, strip).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to check
  2. to collate
  3. to proofread
  4. (bound form) school
  5. college
  6. (bound form) (military) field officer

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwood

Decomposition: ⿰木交 (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
nounxué xiàoschool1
nounxiào zhǎng(college, university) president3
nounxiào yuáncampus3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shàng xiàohigh ranking officer in Chinese army
shào xiàojunior ranking officer in Chinese army
zhōng xiàomiddle ranking officer in Chinese army
fǎn xiàoto return to school
gāo xiàouniversities and colleges
jūn xiàomilitary school
xiào yǒuschoolmate
xiào fúschool uniform
fēn xiàobranch of a school
jiào zhǔnto calibrate
yè xiàoevening school
xiào fāngthe school (as a party in a contract, dispute etc)
mǔ xiàoalma mater
jiào zhèngto proofread and correct
xiào wàioff campus
100
Total compounds
41
As first character
55
As last character
4
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 41 as the first character, 55 as the last, and 4 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.

xué
0.638891,479 co-occurrences
shě
0.563102,654 co-occurrences
yuán
0.47371,202 co-occurrences
cháng
0.472218,652 co-occurrences
yǒu
0.45598,670 co-occurrences
0.437103,638 co-occurrences
zhǐ
0.42646,116 co-occurrences
gāo
0.419209,982 co-occurrences
0.404146,784 co-occurrences
dǒng
0.40428,686 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

gāoděng xuéxiàoHSK 2+

institution of higher learning; colleges and universities

noun
gōnglì xuéxiàoHSK 5+

public school; state school

noun
宿jìsù xuéxiàoHSK 5+

boarding school; residential college

noun
shǔqī xuéxiàoHSK 4+

summer school

noun
zhuānkē xuéxiàoHSK 4+

junior college; vocational college; technical college; institute of technology

noun
Huángpǔ JūnxiàoHSK 5+

an institution that is deemed an industry standard, has industry-wide influence, and produces industry talents

mōjīn xiàowèiHSK 5+

tomb raider; grave robber

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这所学有悠久的历史,培养了很多优秀人才。

Zhè suǒ xuéxiào yǒu yōujiǔ de lìshǐ, péiyǎng le hěn duō yōuxiù réncái.

This school has a long history and has cultivated many outstanding talents.

中時新聞網Feb 2026

竹县爱讲“客”推学客语能力 扩大奖励对象

zhú xiàn ài jiǎng kè tuī xué jiào kè yǔ néng lì kuò dà jiǎng lì duì xiàng

Zhu County loves to speak "guests" and promote the school's Hakka language ability to expand the reward objects

LtnFeb 2026

台中公车驶入园+1 “282绕”停靠雾峰国中

tái zhōng gōng chē shǐ rù jiào yuán 1 2 8 2 rào tíng kào wù fēng guó zhōng

Taichung bus drove into the campus +1 "282 rounds" and stopped at Wufeng Junior High School

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

国教署投1.4亿 助偏乡839活化教学

guó jiào shǔ tóu 1 . 4 yì zhù piān xiāng 8 3 9 jiào huó huà jiào xué

The State Education Administration invested 140 million yuan to help 839 schools in rural areas revitalize teaching

It之家Feb 2026

...轮胎那么简单:比亚迪详解澳洲车型本地化调细节,悬架更硬更偏欧规设定

. . . lún tāi nà má jiǎn dān : bǐ yà dí xiáng jiě ào zhōu chē xíng běn dì huà diào jiào xì jié , xuán jià gēng yìng gēng piān ōu guī shè dìng

... The tires are as simple as that: BYD explains the details of the localization of Australian models in detail, and the suspension is stiffer and more European

百度新闻Feb 2026

徐梦桃、邵琪冬奥会摘金夺铜,母发来喜报

xú mèng táo 邵 琪 dōng ào huì zhāi jīn duó tóng , mǔ jiào fā lái xǐ bào

Xu Mengtao and Shao Qi win gold and bronze in Winter Olympics, and their alma mater sends them a happy report.

Tatoeba

你的学在这个城市吗?

Nǐ de xuéxiào zài zhège chéngshì ma?

Is your school in this town?

Tatoeba

你们今天下午在学做些什么?

Nǐmen jīntiān xiàwǔ zài xuéxiào zuò xiē shénme?

What are you doing at school this afternoon?

Tatoeba

这间游泳学每个月的学费是多少?

Zhè jiān yóuyǒng xuéxiào měi gè yuè de xuéfèi shì duōshao?

How much is the monthly fee of this swimming school?

Tatoeba

他走路去学还是骑车去学

Tā zǒulù qù xuéxiào háishi qíchē qù xuéxiào?

Does he go to school on foot or by bicycle?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 校 (jiào) mean in Chinese?
校 (jiào) primarily means "to check." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #633 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 校 and 效?
校 (jiào) and 效 (xiào) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 木 vs 攵 (same 交 component).
How many strokes does 校 have?
校 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 校?
The radical associated with 校 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 校?
校 is composed of: 木 (semantic), 交 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰木交 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 校?
Common words with 校 include: 学校 (xué xiào, "school"); 上校 (shàng xiào, "high ranking officer in Chinese army"); 校长 (xiào zhǎng, "(college, university) president"); 少校 (shào xiào, "junior ranking officer in Chinese army"); 校园 (xiào yuán, "campus"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 校 (jiào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiào: 郊 (suburbs), 饺 (dumpling), 较 (compare, relatively), 交 (to hand over), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 校 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 校 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.