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

靠 (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 告 (phonetic) and 非 (semantic). It ranks #808 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 靠 people back-to-back. Its radical form 非 (wrong) appears in many related characters such as 非 (fēi, to not be).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

靠

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 靠

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
靠近verbkào jìnto be close to5
可靠adjectivekě kàoreliable5
依靠verb/nounyī kàoto rely on5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
靠边adjectivekào biānto keep to the side
投靠verbtóu kàoto rely on help from sb
停靠verbtíng kàoto call at
靠不住adjectivekào bu zhùunreliable
靠岸verbkào àn(of a boat) to reach the shore
靠得住adjectivekào de zhùreliable
靠拢verbkào lǒngto draw close to
无依无靠phrasewú yī wú kào(idiom) having nothing to rely on
倚靠verbyǐ kàoto lean on
靠垫nounkào diànback cushion
牢靠adjectiveláo kàofirm and solid
可靠性nounkě kào xìngreliability
背靠背verbbèi kào bèiback to back
靠山nounkào shānpatron
挂靠verbguà kàoto be affiliated with
43
Total compounds
44
As first character
40
As last character
16
As middle character

靠 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 靠 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

停tíng
0.68265,480 co-occurrences
近jìn
0.57145,726 co-occurrences
拢lǒng
0.515832 co-occurrences
依yī
0.50822,309 co-occurrences
倚yǐ
0.4911,212 co-occurrences
拾shí
0.44912 co-occurrences
站zhàn
0.44625,556 co-occurrences
可kě
0.43426,498 co-occurrences
投tóu
0.4269,574 co-occurrences
著zhù
0.3889,146 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

六亲无靠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
无依无靠wúyīwúkàoHSK 5+

to have no one to depend on; to be helpless

phrase
无倚无靠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

这个靠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

无糖食品店靠谱吗?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 靠“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,全靠政府买单”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 大叔靠这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

Tatoeba

他靠什么维持生活?

Tā kào shénme wéichíshēnghuó?

What does he do for a living?

Tatoeba

你想靠窗还是走廊?

Nǐ xiǎng kàochuāng háishi zǒuláng?

Would you like a window or aisle seat?

Tatoeba

他们不是很可靠,是吗?

Tāmen bù shì hěn kěkào, shì ma?

They aren't very reliable, are they?

Tatoeba

靠!瑞士的火车什么都有!

Kào! Ruìshì de huǒchē shénme dōu yǒu!

Damn! Swiss trains have everything!

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 非 (people back-to-back) component

非 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"); 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 靠 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.