庙 (miào): temple

庙 (miào) is a Chinese character meaning “temple.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 广 (structural) and 由 (structural). It ranks #1868 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 庙 a building 广 containing an altar 由. Its radical form 广 (shelter) appears in many related characters such as 床 (chuáng, bed), 店 (diàn, shop), 广 (guǎng, wide, broad).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. temple

Etymology & Origin

庙

ideographicA building 广 containing an altar 由

Decomposition: ⿸广由 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
寺庙nounsì miàotemple
神庙nounshén miàotemple
庙宇nounmiào yǔtemple
宗庙nounzōng miàotemple
庙会nounmiào huìtemple fair
圣庙nounshèng miàoshrine to a sage (esp. Confucius)
庙堂nounmiào tángimperial ancestral temple
跑了和尚跑不了庙pǎo le hé shàng pǎo bù liǎo miàothe monk can run away, but the temple won't run with him (idiom)
大水冲了龙王庙phrasedà shuǐ chōng le lóng wáng miàolit. surging waters flooded the Dragon King temple (idiom)
跑得了和尚,跑不了庙pǎo dé liǎo hé shàng , pǎo bù liǎo miàothe monk can run away, but the temple won't run with him (idiom)
帕台农神庙pà tái nóng shén miàoParthenon Temple on the Acropolis, Athens
关庙nounguān miàoGuanmiao, a district in Tainan 台南|台南, Taiwan
庙主miào zhǔhead priest of a temple
宁拆十座庙,不毁一桩婚nìng chāi shí zuò miào , bù huǐ yī zhuāng hūnrather destroy ten temples than a single marriage (idiom)
伊瑞克提翁庙yī ruì kè tí wēng miàothe Erechteum, Athens
29
Total compounds
28
As first character
69
As last character
3
As middle character

庙 appears in 29 compound words: 28 as the first character, 69 as the last, and 3 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 庙 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

寺sì
0.55610,406 co-occurrences
爷yé
0.494746 co-occurrences
嘛ma
0.453480 co-occurrences
神shén
0.4507,984 co-occurrences
岳yuè
0.4421,374 co-occurrences
宇yǔ
0.4383,585 co-occurrences
娘niáng
0.4271,162 co-occurrences
喇lǎ
0.425542 co-occurrences
祀sì
0.424978 co-occurrences
孔kǒng
0.4121,424 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这座古庙有几百年的历史,是当地的重要文化遗产。

Zhè zuò gǔmiào yǒu jǐbǎi nián de lìshǐ, shì dāngdì de zhòngyào wénhuà yíchǎn.

This ancient temple has a history of several hundred years and is an important cultural heritage of the area.

LtnFeb 2026

高雄龙池宫庙埕“全是钱” 价值800万百龟供乞龟祈福

gāo xióng lóng chí gōng miào 埕 quán shì qián jià zhí 8 0 0 wàn bǎi guī gōng qǐ guī qí fú

Kaohsiung Longchi Palace Temple is "all money" worth 8 million turtles for begging turtles to pray for blessings

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

中国新春庙会走进比利时知名学府

zhōng guó xīn chūn miào huì zǒu jìn bǐ lì shí zhī míng xué fǔ

The Chinese New Year Temple Fair entered a well-known Belgian university

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

“老传统+新玩法+新科技” 传统庙会圈粉年轻人

lǎo chuán tǒng xīn wán fǎ xīn kē jì chuán tǒng miào huì juān fěn nián qīng rén

"Old tradition + new gameplay + new technology" Traditional temple fairs attract young people

百度新闻Feb 2026

...淀:春晚同款机器人返场,硬核科技“打开”庙会

. . . diàn : chūn wǎn tóng kuǎn jī qì rén fǎn chǎng , yìng hé kē jì dǎ kāi miào huì

... Dian: The same robot of the Spring Festival Gala returns, and hard-core technology "opens" the temple fair

百度新闻Feb 2026

中外交流|塞尔维亚举行系列新春庙会活动庆祝中国年

zhōng wài jiāo liú sāi ěr wéi yà jǔ háng xì liè xīn chūn miào huì huó dòng qìng zhù zhōng guó nián

Sino-Foreign Exchange|Serbia celebrates Chinese New Year with a series of Lunar New Year temple festivals

Tatoeba

一个神圣的仪式在庄严的庙宇中举行。

Yī gè shénshèng de yíshì zài zhuāngyán de miàoyǔ zhōng jǔxíng.

A sacred ritual took place in the magnificent temple.

Tatoeba

这个寺庙是何时造的?

Zhège sìmiào shì héshí zào de?

When was this temple built?

Tatoeba

您知道这座庙宇供奉的是哪个神吗?

Nín zhīdào zhè zuò miàoyǔ gòngfèng de shì nǎge shén ma?

Do you know which deity this temple is dedicated to?

Tatoeba

我的爱好是游览古老的庙宇。

Wǒ de àihào shì yóulǎn gǔlǎo de miàoyǔ.

My hobby is visiting old temples.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced miào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 庙 (miào) mean in Chinese?
庙 (miào) primarily means "temple." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1868 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 庙 have?
庙 is written with 8 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 庙?
The radical associated with 庙 is 广 (shelter). This radical appears in many characters related to shelter.
What are the components of 庙?
庙 is composed of: 广 (structural), 由 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸广由 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 庙?
Common words with 庙 include: 寺庙 (sì miào, "temple"); 神庙 (shén miào, "temple"); 庙宇 (miào yǔ, "temple"); 宗庙 (zōng miào, "temple"); 庙会 (miào huì, "temple fair"). There are over 29 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 庙 (miào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation miào: 妙 (wonderful), 描 (to depict), 秒 (second (unit of time)), 苗 (Hmong or Miao ethnic group of southwest China), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 庙 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 庙 and the traditional form is 廟.

Practice writing 庙 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.