挠 (náo): to scratch, to thwart, to yield

挠 (náo) is a Chinese character meaning “to scratch.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 尧 (phonetic). It ranks #2626 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 挠 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 扌 hand9 strokesFrequency #2626扌 semantic尧 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to scratch
  2. to thwart
  3. to yield

Etymology & Origin

挠

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌尧 (layout: left-right)

Components:扌semantic尧phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
阻挠zǔ náoto thwart
不屈不挠bù qū bù náounyielding
挠头náo tóutricky
百折不挠bǎi zhé bù náoto keep on fighting in spite of all setbacks (idiom)
干挠gān náovariant of 干擾|干扰[gan1 rao3], to interfere
抓耳挠腮zhuā ěr náo sāito tweak one's ears and scratch one's cheeks (as an expression of anxiety, delight, frustration etc) (idiom)
挠率náo lǜthe torsion (of a space curve)
挠败náo bàidefeated
抓挠zhuā naoto scratch
挠曲náo qūto bend
挠裂náo lièsplit due to repeated folding
屈挠qū náoto surrender
挠钩náo gōuiron hook at the end a long pole
挠痒痒náo yǎng yangto tickle
痒痒挠yǎng yang náobackscratcher (made from bamboo etc)
15
Total compounds
47
As first character
47
As last character
7
As middle character

挠 appears in 15 compound words: 47 as the first character, 47 as the last, and 7 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 挠 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

阻zǔ
0.6467,170 co-occurrences
痒yǎng
0.568210 co-occurrences
屈qū
0.505774 co-occurrences
搓cuō
0.43236 co-occurrences
静jìng
0.430396 co-occurrences
万wàn
0.4081,338 co-occurrences
挂guà
0.398198 co-occurrences
悬xuán
0.391150 co-occurrences
闹nào
0.37748 co-occurrences
抓zhuā
0.370168 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

百折不挠bǎizhébùnáoHSK 7+

indomitable; unfazed by difficulties or challenges; (slightly derogatory) stubborn; persistent

phrase
不屈不挠bùqūbùnáoHSK 7+

unyielding; indomitable; dauntless

phrase
抓耳挠腮zhuā ěr náo sāiHSK 7+

to tweak one's ears and scratch one's cheeks (as an expression of anxiety, delight, frustration etc) (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他挠了一个电话，约朋友晚上一起吃饭。

tā náo le yī gě diàn huà , yāo péng yǒu wǎn shǎng yī qǐ chī fàn .

He made a phone call to arrange dinner with a friend that evening.

Orientaldaily MyMar 2026

高庭撤销禁拆万挠兴都庙裁决 庙宇律师:已提起上诉

gāo tíng chè xiāo jīn chāi wàn náo xīng dōu miào cái jué miào yǔ lǜ shī : yǐ tí qǐ shàng sù

99 健康网Mar 2026

男人下面瘙痒是什么原因引起的?反复抓挠导致苔藓样变吗

nán rén xià miàn 瘙 yǎng shì shén má yuán yīn yǐn qǐ de ? fǎn fù zhuā náo dǎo zhì 苔 藓 yàng biàn ma

What causes itching under a man? Does repeated scratching cause lichen-like?

Character Family

扌 Radical Family — Characters sharing the hand radical

挨āi按àn扒bā拔bá把bǎ摆bǎi扳bān搬bān扮bàn拌bàn

Related Characters

手shǒu打dǎ找zhǎo拿ná才cái护hù报bào拉lā挺tǐng换huàn

Homophones — Characters pronounced náo

恼nǎo脑nǎo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 挠 (náo) mean in Chinese?
挠 (náo) primarily means "to scratch." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2626 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 挠 and 烧?
挠 (náo) and 烧 (shāo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 火 (same 尧 component).
How many strokes does 挠 have?
挠 is written with 9 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 挠?
The radical associated with 挠 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 挠?
挠 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 尧 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌尧 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 挠?
Common words with 挠 include: 阻挠 (zǔ náo, "to thwart"); 不屈不挠 (bù qū bù náo, "unyielding"); 挠头 (náo tóu, "tricky"); 百折不挠 (bǎi zhé bù náo, "to keep on fighting in spite of all setbacks (idiom)"); 干挠 (gān náo, "variant of 干擾|干扰[gan1 rao3], to interfere"). There are over 15 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 挠 (náo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation náo: 恼 (annoyed), 脑 (brain). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 挠 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 挠 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.