峭 (qiào): high and steep

峭 (qiào) is a Chinese character meaning “high and steep.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 山 (semantic) and 肖 (phonetic). It ranks #3029 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 峭 mountain. Its radical form 山 (mountain) appears in many related characters such as 峡 (xiá, gorge), 屿 (yǔ, islet), 巅 (diān, summit).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 山 mountain10 strokesFrequency #3029山 semantic肖 phonetic

Definitions

  1. high and steep

Etymology & Origin

峭

pictophoneticmountain

Decomposition: ⿰山肖 (layout: left-right)

Components:山semantic肖phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
峭壁qiào bìcliff
陡峭dǒu qiàoprecipitous
悬崖峭壁xuán yá qiào bì(idiom) sheer cliffs and precipitous rock faces
料峭liào qiàospring chill in the air
劲峭jìng qiào(of wind) strong and bitterly cold
峻峭jùn qiàohigh and steep
6
Total compounds
17
As first character
67
As last character
17
As middle character

峭 appears in 6 compound words: 17 as the first character, 67 as the last, and 17 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 峭 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

陡dǒu
0.87714,136 co-occurrences
壁bì
0.6467,944 co-occurrences
崖yá
0.6012,532 co-occurrences
峻jùn
0.533984 co-occurrences
悬xuán
0.5171,068 co-occurrences
坡pō
0.4932,400 co-occurrences
耸sǒng
0.488144 co-occurrences
晰xī
0.474420 co-occurrences
尖jiān
0.4721,236 co-occurrences
岖qū
0.46190 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

悬崖峭壁xuányáqiàobìHSK 7+

sheer precipices and overhanging rocks; perilous cliffs and precipices

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

峭字在日常生活中使用频率较低。

qiào zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ jiào dī .

The character "峭" is not used very often in everyday life.

Character Family

山 Radical Family — Characters sharing the mountain radical

崩bēng崇chóng峰fēng岗gǎng崛jué峻jùn岭lǐng崎qí嵌kǎn岖qū

Related Characters

峡xiá屿yǔ巅diān山shān岁suì岸àn崇chóng岛dǎo峰fēng岗gǎng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 峭 (qiào) mean in Chinese?
峭 (qiào) primarily means "high and steep." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3029 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 峭 and 低?
峭 (qiào) and 低 (dī) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 峭 (high) vs 低 (low).
How many strokes does 峭 have?
峭 is written with 10 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 峭?
The radical associated with 峭 is 山 (mountain). This radical appears in many characters related to mountain.
What are the components of 峭?
峭 is composed of: 山 (semantic), 肖 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰山肖 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 峭?
Common words with 峭 include: 峭壁 (qiào bì, "cliff"); 陡峭 (dǒu qiào, "precipitous"); 悬崖峭壁 (xuán yá qiào bì, "(idiom) sheer cliffs and precipitous rock faces"); 料峭 (liào qiào, "spring chill in the air"); 劲峭 (jìng qiào, "(of wind) strong and bitterly cold"). There are over 6 compound words containing this character.
Is 峭 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 峭 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 峭 with real-time feedback

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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.