瞧 (qiáo): to look at

瞧 (qiáo) is a Chinese character meaning “to look at.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 目 (semantic) and 焦 (phonetic). It ranks #1541 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 瞧 eye. Its radical form 目 (eye) appears in many related characters such as 看 (kàn, to look, to see), 真 (zhēn, really), 着 (zhe, -ing, to wear).

Native pronunciation
HSK 6Radical: 目 eye17 strokesFrequency #1541目 semantic焦 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to look at

Etymology & Origin

瞧

pictophoneticeye

Decomposition: ⿰目焦 (layout: left-right)

Components:目semantic焦phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
走着瞧zǒu zhe qiáowait and see (who is right)
瞧见qiáo jiànto see
瞧不起qiáo bù qǐto look down upon
等着瞧děng zhe qiáowait and see (who is right)
瞧着办qiáo zhe bànto do as one sees fit
小瞧xiǎo qiáo(coll.) to look down on
吃着碗里，瞧着锅里chī zhe wǎn lǐ , qiáo zhe guō lǐsee 吃著碗裡，看著鍋裡|吃着碗里，看着锅里[chi1 zhe5 wan3 li3 , kan4 zhe5 guo1 li3]
东瞧西瞅dōng qiáo xī chǒusee 東張西望|东张西望[dong1 zhang1 xi1 wang4]
8
Total compounds
38
As first character
38
As last character
25
As middle character

瞧 appears in 8 compound words: 38 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 25 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 瞧 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

酷kù
0.469348 co-occurrences
起qǐ
0.4673,753 co-occurrences
不bù
0.4053,946 co-occurrences
吧ba
0.366108 co-occurrences
傲ào
0.35648 co-occurrences
走zǒu
0.350306 co-occurrences
着zhe
0.334252 co-occurrences
眼yǎn
0.332162 co-occurrences
你nǐ
0.321219 co-occurrences
睛jīng
0.31830 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

你瞧，那边有人在排队，我们也过去看看吧。

Nǐ qiáo, nà biān yǒu rén zài páiduì, wǒmen yě guòqu kànkan ba.

Look, there are people lining up over there; let's go take a look too.

Tatoeba

那人连瞧也不瞧她一眼就走过了。

Nà rén lián qiáo yě bù qiáo tā yīyǎn jiù zǒuguò le.

The man passed by without so much as glancing at her.

Tatoeba

他有瞧不起有色人种的习惯。

Tā yǒu qiáobùqǐ yǒusèrénzhǒng de xíguàn.

He has a habit of looking down on coloured people.

Tatoeba

我刚才瞧了一眼，一点没意思。

Wǒ gāngcái qiáo le yīyǎn, yīdiǎn méiyìsi.

I just had a quick look. It wasn't interesting at all.

Tatoeba

富人往往瞧不起穷人。

Fùrén wǎngwǎng qiáobùqǐ qióngrén.

The rich are apt to look down upon the poor.

Tatoeba

她很瞧不起我，认为我没有幽默细胞。

Tā hěn qiáobùqǐ wǒ, rènwéi wǒ méiyǒu yōumò xìbāo.

She looks down on me for not having a sense of humor.

Character Family

目 Radical Family — Characters sharing the eye radical

睬cǎi瞅chǒu瞪dèng盯dīng督dū睹dǔ盹dǔn睛jīng眶kuàng睐lài

Related Characters

看kàn真zhēn着zhe睡shuì觉jué目mù直zhí相xiāng省shěng眼yǎn

Homophones — Characters pronounced qiáo

憔qiáo壳qiào悄qiǎo敲qiāo乔qiáo侨qiáo桥qiáo巧qiǎo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 瞧 (qiáo) mean in Chinese?
瞧 (qiáo) primarily means "to look at." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1541 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 瞧 and 蕉?
瞧 (qiáo) and 蕉 (jiāo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 目 vs 艹 (same 焦 component).
How many strokes does 瞧 have?
瞧 is written with 17 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 瞧?
The radical associated with 瞧 is 目 (eye). This radical appears in many characters related to eye.
What are the components of 瞧?
瞧 is composed of: 目 (semantic), 焦 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰目焦 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 瞧?
Common words with 瞧 include: 走着瞧 (zǒu zhe qiáo, "wait and see (who is right)"); 瞧见 (qiáo jiàn, "to see"); 瞧不起 (qiáo bù qǐ, "to look down upon"); 等着瞧 (děng zhe qiáo, "wait and see (who is right)"); 瞧着办 (qiáo zhe bàn, "to do as one sees fit"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 瞧 (qiáo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation qiáo: 憔 (used in 憔悴[qiao2 cui4]), 壳 ((coll.) shell (of an egg, nut, crab etc)), 悄 (quiet), 敲 (to hit), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 瞧 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 瞧 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 瞧 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

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.