(qiáo): to look at

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

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

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to look at

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticeye

Decomposition: ⿰目焦 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
zǒu zhe qiáowait and see (who is right)
qiáo jiànto see
qiáo bù qǐto look down upon
děng zhe qiáowait and see (who is right)
qiáo zhe bànto do as one sees fit
xiǎo qiáo(coll.) to look down on
chī zhe wǎn lǐ , qiáo zhe guō lǐsee 吃著碗裡,看著鍋裡|吃着碗里,看着锅里
西dōng qiáo xī chǒusee 東張西望|东张西望
8
Total compounds
38
As first character
38
As last character
25
As middle character

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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.469348 co-occurrences
0.4673,753 co-occurrences
0.4053,946 co-occurrences
ba
0.366108 co-occurrences
ào
0.35648 co-occurrences
zǒu
0.350306 co-occurrences
zhe
0.334252 co-occurrences
yǎn
0.332162 co-occurrences
0.321219 co-occurrences
jīng
0.31830 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

,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.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

过后,小姨着我,眼神像看穿了我似的,说我小气。

guò hòu , xiǎo yí qiáo zhe wǒ , yǎn shén xiàng kàn chuān le wǒ sì de , shuō wǒ xiǎo qì .

Afterward, my aunt looked at me with a gaze that seemed to see right through me and said I was stingy.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

这三层手键盘,各管一片音域。

qiáo zhè sān céng shǒu jiàn pán , gè guǎn yī piàn yīn yù .

Check out this three-tiered keyboard—each tier covers a different pitch range.

Tatoeba

那人连也不她一眼就走过了。

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

富人往往不起穷人。

Fùrén wǎngwǎng qiáobùqǐ qióngrén.

The rich are apt to look down upon the poor.

Tatoeba

她很不起我,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

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 目 (eye) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced qiáo

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), 巧 (opportunely), 桥 (bridge), 乔 (tall), 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 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.