琐 (suǒ): fragmentary

琐 (suǒ) is a Chinese character meaning “fragmentary.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 王 (semantic). It ranks #3078 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 琐 jade. Its radical form 王 (jade) appears in many related characters such as 现 (xiàn, to appear), 球 (qiú, ball used for playing games (variant of 球[qiu2])), 环 (huán, ring).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 王 jade11 strokesFrequency #3078王 semantic

Definitions

  1. fragmentary

Etymology & Origin

琐

pictophoneticjade

Decomposition: ⿰王⿱⺌贝 (layout: left-right)

Components:王semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
琐事suǒ shìtrifle
猥琐wěi suǒwretched (esp. appearance)
琐碎suǒ suìtrifling
繁琐fán suǒmany and complicated
烦琐fán suǒtedious
琐细suǒ xìtrivial
琐罗亚斯德教suǒ luó yà sī dé jiàoZoroastrianism
琐罗亚斯特suǒ luó yà sī tèZoroaster
琐罗亚斯德suǒ luó yà sī déZoroaster, Zarathustra or Zarathushtra (c. 1200 BC), Persian prophet and founder of Zoroastrianism
琐记suǒ jìfragmentary recollections
琐闻suǒ wénnews items
琐屑suǒ xiètrivial matters
12
Total compounds
75
As first character
25
As last character
0
As middle character

琐 appears in 12 compound words: 75 as the first character, 25 as the last, and 0 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 琐 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

繁fán
0.5652,412 co-occurrences
碎suì
0.522960 co-occurrences
屑xiè
0.473156 co-occurrences
烦fán
0.456114 co-occurrences
梦mèng
0.427282 co-occurrences
冗rǒng
0.42254 co-occurrences
暄xuān
0.41230 co-occurrences
炉lú
0.39478 co-occurrences
亚yà
0.3911,086 co-occurrences
罗luó
0.3911,098 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

琐字的写法很特别，让我印象深刻。

suǒ zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The way the character "琐" is written is quite unique, and it really left an impression on me.

Orientaldaily MyApr 2026

油不够不能进!汶莱新规繁琐 入境关卡大排长龙

yóu bù gòu bù néng jìn ! 汶 lái xīn guī fán suǒ rù jìng guān kǎ dà pái cháng lóng

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

交流琐事 探讨哲学 互相点赞,AI开始“社交”...

jiāo liú suǒ shì tàn tǎo zhé xué hù xiāng diǎn zàn , A I kāi shǐ shè jiāo . . .

Exchange trivia, discuss philosophy, like each other, and AI begins to "socialize"...

Character Family

王 Radical Family — Characters sharing the jade radical

玻bō璀cuǐ瑰guī环huán璃lí理lǐ玫méi球qiú瑞ruì玩wán

Related Characters

现xiàn球qiú环huán理lǐ珍zhēn班bān玉yù玩wán王wáng玻bō

Homophones — Characters pronounced suǒ

锁suǒ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 琐 (suǒ) mean in Chinese?
琐 (suǒ) primarily means "fragmentary." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3078 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 琐 and 肖?
琐 (suǒ) and 肖 (xiào) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 王 vs 肉 (same ⺌ component).
How many strokes does 琐 have?
琐 is written with 11 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 琐?
The radical associated with 琐 is 王 (jade). This radical appears in many characters related to jade.
What are the components of 琐?
琐 is composed of: 王 (semantic), undefined (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰王⿱⺌贝 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 琐?
Common words with 琐 include: 琐事 (suǒ shì, "trifle"); 猥琐 (wěi suǒ, "wretched (esp. appearance)"); 琐碎 (suǒ suì, "trifling"); 繁琐 (fán suǒ, "many and complicated"); 烦琐 (fán suǒ, "tedious"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 琐 (suǒ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation suǒ: 锁 (to lock). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 琐 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 琐 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 琐 with real-time feedback

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

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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.