哨 (shào): a whistle, sentry

哨 (shào) is a Chinese character meaning “a whistle.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 肖 (phonetic). It ranks #2311 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 哨 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. a whistle
  2. sentry

Etymology & Origin

哨

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口肖 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
口哨nounkǒu shàowhistle
花哨adjectivehuā shaogarish
哨子nounshào ziwhistle
放哨verbfàng shàoto keep watch
前哨nounqián shàooutpost
哨兵nounshào bīngsentinel
岗哨noungǎng shàolookout post
花里胡哨phrasehuā li hú shàogaudy
前哨战qián shào zhànskirmish
检查哨jiǎn chá shàoinspection post
哨所nounshào suǒwatchhouse
观察哨guān chá shàosentry post
哨卡nounshào qiǎborder sentry post
哨子声shào zi shēngwhistling sound
暗哨儿àn shào rwhistle given as a secret signal
30
Total compounds
20
As first character
70
As last character
10
As middle character

哨 appears in 30 compound words: 20 as the first character, 70 as the last, and 10 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 哨 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

吹chuī
0.5982,067 co-occurrences
戒jiè
0.5061,000 co-occurrences
兵bīng
0.4492,538 co-occurrences
驱qū
0.422338 co-occurrences
岗gǎng
0.417240 co-occurrences
前qián
0.4094,102 co-occurrences
鸽gē
0.40440 co-occurrences
笛dí
0.38090 co-occurrences
盯dīng
0.35922 co-occurrences
艇tǐng
0.354228 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

花里胡哨huālihúshàoHSK 7+

showy; gaudy; garish

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他哨才很好,能言善辩,是个出色的律师。

tā shào cái hěn hǎo , néng yán shàn biàn , shì gě chū sè de lǜ shī .

He is a skilled orator and a gifted lawyer.

DigitimesApr 2026

...阔折叠抢先卡位 折叠式手机迈入三强鼎立前哨战

. . . kuò zhé dié qiǎng xiān kǎ wèi zhé dié shì shǒu jī mài rù sān qiáng dǐng lì qián shào zhàn

...Wide-screen foldables take the lead as foldable phones enter the preliminary phase of a three-way race

NewtalkMar 2026

台湾课本介绍新冠肺炎吹哨者“李文亮事迹” 中国AI跳脚拒答

tái wān kè běn jiè shào xīn guàn fèi yán chuī shào zhě lǐ wén liàng shì jì zhōng guó A I tiào jiǎo jù dā

Taiwanese Textbooks Feature the Story of COVID-19 Whistleblower Li Wenliang; Chinese AI Refuses to Respond

中国军网Feb 2026

持续深化政治整训·政治干部好样子丨深夜查哨,政委来了两次

chí xù shēn huà zhèng zhì zhěng xùn zhèng zhì gān bù hǎo yàng zǐ 丨 shēn yè chá shào , zhèng wěi lái le liǎng cì

Continue to deepen political rectification and training, political cadres look good丨Late at night, the political commissar came twice

中国军网Feb 2026

风光发电不再“罢工”,偏远执勤哨接通长明电

fēng guāng fā diàn bù zài bà gōng , piān yuǎn zhí qín shào jiē tōng cháng míng diàn

Wind and solar power generation is no longer "on strike", and remote duty posts are connected to Changming electricity

WorldjournalFeb 2026

场边人语/魔术压哨 湖人失招

chǎng biān rén yǔ mó shù yā shào hú rén shī zhāo

Sidelines/Magic buzzer Lakers missed

Tatoeba

问那边的警察岗哨。

Wèn nàbian de jǐngchá gǎngshào.

Ask at the police box over there.

Tatoeba

裁判吹哨两次,向大家宣布已经终场。

Cáipàn chuīshào liǎng cì, xiàng dàjiā xuānbù yǐjīng zhōngchǎng.

The referee blew his whistle twice to tell everyone it was full-time.

Tatoeba

裁判吹响了口哨,判定他手球。

Cáipàn chuī xiǎng le kǒushào, pàndìng tā shǒuqiú.

The referee blew the whistle and called a hand ball on him.

Tatoeba

会场内,掌声、哨声、喊声、笑声乱成了一锅粥。

Huìchǎng nèi, zhǎngshēng, shào shēng, hǎnshēng, xiàoshēng luàn chéngle yīguōzhōu.

Inside the venue, sounds of clapping, whistling, yelling, laughing blended together.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 口 (mouth) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced shào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 哨 (shào) mean in Chinese?
哨 (shào) primarily means "a whistle." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2311 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 哨 and 消?
哨 (shào) and 消 (xiāo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 口 vs 氵 (same 肖 component).
How many strokes does 哨 have?
哨 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 哨?
The radical associated with 哨 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 哨?
哨 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 肖 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口肖 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 哨?
Common words with 哨 include: 口哨 (kǒu shào, "whistle"); 花哨 (huā shao, "garish"); 哨子 (shào zi, "whistle"); 放哨 (fàng shào, "to keep watch"); 前哨 (qián shào, "outpost"). There are over 30 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 哨 (shào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shào: 梢 (tip of branch), 捎 (to bring sth to sb). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 哨 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 哨 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 哨 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.