(kào): to lean against or on, to stand by the side of, to come near to

(kào) is a Chinese character meaning “to lean against or on.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #808 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, people back-to-back. Its radical form (wrong) appears in many related characters such as (fēi, abbr. for 非洲, Africa).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to lean against or on
  2. to stand by the side of
  3. to come near to

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticpeople back-to-back

Decomposition: ⿱告非 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

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
verbkào jìnto be close to5
kě kàoreliable5
verb/nounyī kàoto rely on sth (for support etc)5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
kào biānto keep to the side
tóu kàoto rely on help from sb
tíng kàoto call at
kào bu zhùunreliable
kào àn(of a boat) to reach the shore
kào de zhùreliable
kào lǒngto draw close to
wú yī wú kào(idiom) having nothing to rely on
yǐ kàoto lean on
kào diànback cushion
láo kàofirm and solid
kě kào xìngreliability
bèi kào bèiback to back
kào shānpatron
guà kàoto be affiliated with
43
Total compounds
44
As first character
40
As last character
16
As middle character

appears in 43 compound words: 44 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 16 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.

tíng
0.692196,440 co-occurrences
jìn
0.579137,178 co-occurrences
0.56666,854 co-occurrences
lǒng
0.5392,478 co-occurrences
0.4983,636 co-occurrences
zhàn
0.45376,668 co-occurrences
0.44079,494 co-occurrences
tóu
0.43228,722 co-occurrences
zhù
0.39427,438 co-occurrences
guà
0.3832,484 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

liù qīn wú kàoHSK 5+

orphaned of all one's immediate relatives (idiom); no one to rely on; left to one's own devices

phrase
wúyīwúkàoHSK 5+

to have no one to depend on; to be helpless

phrase
wúyǐwúkàoHSK 7+

synonym of 無依無靠 /无依无靠 (wúyīwúkào, “to have no one to depend on; to be helpless”)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

zhè gě kào zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .

The character "靠" had different meanings in Classical Chinese.

99 健康网Feb 2026

无糖食品店谱吗?线下专营店比网购更可信吗

wú táng shí pǐn diàn kào pǔ ma ? xiàn xià zhuān yíng diàn bǐ wǎng gòu gēng kě xìn ma

Are sugar free food stores reliable? Is offline franchise store more credible than online shopping?

EdigestFeb 2026

...局 日亚基金成大赢家!港美股陷低迷见红 “呢个玩法”逆市保平安兼稳赚

. . . jú rì yà jī jīn chéng dà yíng jiā ! gǎng měi gǔ xiàn dī mí jiàn hóng kào ne gè wán fǎ nì shì bǎo píng ān jiān wěn zhuàn

... Bureau Nichiya Fund became a big winner! Hong Kong and U.S. stocks are in a downturn and are in the red, relying on "this way of playing" to go against the market to ensure safety and make steady profits

風傳媒Feb 2026

“只会表演不会生产,全政府买单”中国春晚机器人惊艳全球,《经济...

zhī huì biǎo yǎn bù huì shēng chǎn , quán kào zhèng fǔ mǎi dān zhōng guó chūn wǎn jī qì rén jīng yàn quán qiú , jīng jì . . .

"Only performance will not produce, it all depends on the government to pay" China Spring Festival Gala robots amazed the world, "Economy...

三立新聞網Feb 2026

退休仅存20万 大叔这2招10年后抱千万

tuì xiū jǐn cún 2 0 wàn dà shū kào zhè 2 zhāo 1 0 nián hòu bào qiān wàn

Only 200,000 yuan is left for retirement, and the uncle relies on these 2 tricks to hold tens of millions in 10 years

LtnFeb 2026

台中公车驶入校园+1 “282绕”停雾峰国中

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

Tatoeba

什么维持生活?

Tā kào shénme wéichíshēnghuó?

What does he do for a living?

Tatoeba

你想窗还是走廊?

Nǐ xiǎng kàochuāng háishi zǒuláng?

Would you like a window or aisle seat?

Tatoeba

他们不是很可,是吗?

Tāmen bù shì hěn kěkào, shì ma?

They aren't very reliable, are they?

Tatoeba

!瑞士的火车什么都有!

Kào! Ruìshì de huǒchē shénme dōu yǒu!

Damn! Swiss trains have everything!

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the wrong radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced kào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 靠 (kào) mean in Chinese?
靠 (kào) primarily means "to lean against or on." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #808 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 靠 and 上?
靠 (kào) and 上 (shàng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 靠 (come) vs 上 (go).
How many strokes does 靠 have?
靠 is written with 15 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 靠?
The radical associated with 靠 is 非 (wrong). This radical appears in many characters related to wrong.
What are the components of 靠?
靠 is composed of: 告 (phonetic), 非 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱告非 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 靠?
Common words with 靠 include: 靠近 (kào jìn, "to be close to"); 可靠 (kě kào, "reliable"); 依靠 (yī kào, "to rely on sth (for support etc)"); 靠边 (kào biān, "to keep to the side"); 投靠 (tóu kào, "to rely on help from sb"). There are over 43 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 靠 (kào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation kào: 考 (to beat), 烤 (to roast, to bake). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 靠 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 靠 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.