苗 (miáo): Hmong or Miao ethnic group of southwest China, sprout

苗 (miáo) is a Chinese character meaning “hmong or miao ethnic group of southwest china.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (structural) and 田 (structural). It ranks #1897 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 苗 grass 艹 growing in a field 田. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 花 (huā, flower), 茶 (chá, tea), 菜 (cài, vegetable, dish).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. Hmong or Miao ethnic group of southwest China
  2. sprout

Etymology & Origin

苗

ideographicGrass 艹 growing in a field 田

Decomposition: ⿱艹田 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
疫苗nounyì miáovaccine
苗条adjectivemiáo tiao(of a woman) slim
幼苗nounyòu miáoyoung sprout
苗头nounmiáo toufirst signs
火苗nounhuǒ miáoflame
苗圃nounmiáo pǔplant nursery
苗族proper-nounmiáo zúMiao ethnic group
树苗nounshù miáosapling
苗子nounmiáo ziyoung successor
卡介苗nounkǎ jiè miáoBCG vaccine
鱼苗nounyú miáofry
豆苗noundòu miáopea shoots
苗家miáo jiāsee 苗族
间苗verbjiàn miáothinning out seedlings
独苗noundú miáoonly child
75
Total compounds
17
As first character
43
As last character
40
As middle character

苗 appears in 75 compound words: 17 as the first character, 43 as the last, and 40 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 苗 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

疫yì
0.71631,588 co-occurrences
矢shǐ
0.52313 co-occurrences
揠yà
0.51520 co-occurrences
爷yé
0.51422 co-occurrences
淹yān
0.50716 co-occurrences
族zú
0.4719,110 co-occurrences
秧yāng
0.435150 co-occurrences
竹zhú
0.4202,679 co-occurrences
早zǎo
0.3962,668 co-occurrences
棵kē
0.389100 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们苗字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men miáo zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of surnames.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

苗栗推鲑鱼回流、双联制争取学业优异学子就近...

miáo 栗 tuī 鲑 yú huí liú , shuāng lián zhì zhēng qǔ xué yè yōu yì xué zǐ jiù jìn . . .

Miaoli pushes salmon return and dual system to strive for students with excellent academic performance...

Investing 香港Feb 2026

高市早苗“鸽派提名”点燃期限溢价! 日本长期限国...

gāo shì zǎo miáo gē pài tí míng diǎn rán qī xiàn yì jià ! rì běn cháng qī xiàn guó . . .

Sanae Gaoshi's "dovish nomination" ignites the term premium! Japan's long-term country...

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

圆汇突挫1% 传高市早苗上周与日央行行长会面时对加息表示担忧

yuán huì tū cuò 1 chuán gāo shì zǎo miáo shàng zhōu yǔ rì yāng háng háng cháng huì miàn shí duì jiā xī biǎo shì dān yōu

The yen fell sharply by 1% and Sanae expressed concern about interest rate hikes during a meeting with the governor of the Bank of Japan last week

NewtalkFeb 2026

中国网军4千帐户攻击高市早苗 矢板明夫:台日两国正面对相同挑战

zhōng guó wǎng jūn 4 qiān zhàng hù gōng jī gāo shì zǎo miáo shǐ bǎn míng fū : tái rì liǎng guó zhèng miàn duì xiāng tóng tiāo zhàn

4,000 accounts of China's cyber army attacked Sanae Takaichi Akio Yaita: Taiwan and Japan are facing the same challenges

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

广东今年HPV免疫规划疫苗已开打 13岁女孩可免费接种

guǎng dōng jīn nián H P V miǎn yì guī huá yì miáo yǐ kāi dǎ 1 3 suì nǚ hái kě miǎn fèi jiē zhǒng

Guangdong's HPV immunization program vaccine has been launched this year, and 13-year-old girls can be vaccinated for free

Tatoeba

我接种了流感疫苗。

Wǒ jiēzhòng le liúgǎnyìmiáo.

I had a flu shot.

Tatoeba

疫苗不会导致自闭症。

Yìmiáo bùhuì dǎozhì zìbìzhèng.

Vaccines don't cause autism.

Tatoeba

说苗条比说瘦更有礼貌。

Shuō miáotiao bǐ shuō shòu gèng yǒulǐmào.

It's more polite to say thin than skinny.

Tatoeba

看完研究以后,我们其中大部分人论定疫苗是件好事。

Kàn wán yánjiū yǐhòu, wǒmen qízhōng dàbùfen rén lùndìng yìmiáo shì jiàn hǎoshì.

After looking at the research, most of us conclude that vaccines are a good thing.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced miáo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 苗 (miáo) mean in Chinese?
苗 (miáo) primarily means "hmong or miao ethnic group of southwest china." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1897 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 苗 have?
苗 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 苗?
The radical associated with 苗 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 苗?
苗 is composed of: 艹 (structural), 田 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹田 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 苗?
Common words with 苗 include: 疫苗 (yì miáo, "vaccine"); 苗条 (miáo tiao, "(of a woman) slim"); 幼苗 (yòu miáo, "young sprout"); 苗头 (miáo tou, "first signs"); 火苗 (huǒ miáo, "flame"). There are over 75 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 苗 (miáo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation miáo: 妙 (wonderful), 描 (to depict), 秒 (second (unit of time)), 庙 (temple), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 苗 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 苗 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 苗 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.