瘙 (sào): itch, old term for scabies

瘙 (sào) is a Chinese character meaning “itch.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 疒 (semantic) and 蚤 (phonetic). It ranks #4324 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 瘙 sickness. Its radical form 疒 (illness) appears in many related characters such as 病 (bìng, illness), 痛 (tòng, pain), 医 (yī, medicine).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. itch
  2. old term for scabies

Etymology & Origin

瘙

pictophoneticsickness

Decomposition: ⿸疒蚤 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
羊瘙痒病yáng sào yǎng bìngscrapie (prion disease of sheep)
瘙痒病sào yǎng bìngscrapie (prion disease of sheep)
羊瘙痒症yáng sào yǎng zhèngscrapie (prion disease of sheep)
瘙痒症sào yǎng zhèngpruritus
瘙痒verbsào yǎngto itch
5
Total compounds
60
As first character
0
As last character
40
As middle character

瘙 appears in 5 compound words: 60 as the first character, 0 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 瘙 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

痒yǎng
0.90033 co-occurrences
引yǐn
0.52829 co-occurrences
原yuán
0.51429 co-occurrences
因yīn
0.49129 co-occurrences
什shén
0.46129 co-occurrences
起qǐ
0.42029 co-occurrences
么me
0.41032 co-occurrences
面miàn
0.40825 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·生活Sep 2026

一些过敏患者在吃了某些新鲜水果、蔬菜或坚果后,也会在短时间内出现瘙痒、刺痛甚至肿胀。

yī xiē guò mǐn huàn zhě zài chī le mǒu xiē xīn xiān shuǐ guǒ , shū cài huò jiān guǒ hòu , yě huì zài duǎn shí jiān nèi chū xiàn sào yǎng , cì tòng shèn zhì zhǒng zhàng .

Some people with allergies may also experience itching, a stinging sensation, or even swelling shortly after eating certain fresh fruits, vegetables, or nuts.

中国新闻网·生活Sep 2026

刺激症状通常是非特异性的、暂时的 ,可能包括瘙痒、咳嗽或喘息。

cì jī zhèng zhuàng tōng cháng shì fēi tè yì xìng de , zàn shí de , kě néng bāo kuò sào yǎng , ké sòu huò chuǎn xī .

Symptoms of irritation are usually nonspecific and temporary, and may include itching, coughing, or wheezing.

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

不到五分钟,她的嘴唇迅速肿胀,随后全身皮肤瘙痒,还出现呼吸憋闷等过敏反应。

bù dào wǔ fēn zhōng , tā de zuǐ chún xùn sù zhǒng zhàng , suí hòu quán shēn pí fū sào yǎng , hái chū xiàn hū xī biē mēn děng guò mǐn fǎn yīng .

In less than five minutes, her lips swelled rapidly, followed by itching all over her body and other allergic reactions, such as difficulty breathing.

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

有些患者还会出现难以忍受的瘙痒、顽固性湿疹、皮下结节或血管性水肿。

yǒu xiē huàn zhě hái huì chū xiàn nán yǐ rěn shòu de sào yǎng , wán gù xìng shī zhěn , pí xià jié jié huò xiě guǎn xìng shuǐ zhǒng .

Some patients may also experience unbearable itching, persistent eczema, subcutaneous nodules, or angioedema.

少数派Jun 2026

有 85% 的女性都表示在更年期出现了不同程度的阴道干涩、瘙痒和刺激等症状。

yǒu 8 5 de nǚ xìng dōu biǎo shì zài gèng nián qī chū xiàn le bù tóng chéng dù de yīn dào gān sè , sào yǎng hé cì jī děng zhèng zhuàng .

Eighty-five percent of women report experiencing varying degrees of vaginal dryness, itching, and irritation during menopause.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 疒 (sickness) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 瘙 (sào) mean in Chinese?
瘙 (sào) primarily means "itch." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #4324 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 瘙 have?
瘙 is written with 14 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 瘙?
The radical associated with 瘙 is 疒 (illness). This radical appears in many characters related to illness.
What are the components of 瘙?
瘙 is composed of: 疒 (semantic), 蚤 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸疒蚤 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 瘙?
Common words with 瘙 include: 羊瘙痒病 (yáng sào yǎng bìng, "scrapie (prion disease of sheep)"); 瘙痒病 (sào yǎng bìng, "scrapie (prion disease of sheep)"); 羊瘙痒症 (yáng sào yǎng zhèng, "scrapie (prion disease of sheep)"); 瘙痒症 (sào yǎng zhèng, "pruritus"); 瘙痒 (sào yǎng, "to itch"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
Is 瘙 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 瘙 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 瘙 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.