晓 (xiǎo): dawn, know

晓 (xiǎo) is a Chinese character meaning “dawn, know.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 日 (semantic) and 尧 (phonetic). It ranks #1349 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 晓 sun. Its radical form 日 (sun) appears in many related characters such as 日 (rì, sun, day), 早 (zǎo, early, morning), 时 (shí, time, hour).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. dawn, know

Etymology & Origin

晓

pictophoneticsun

Decomposition: ⿰日尧 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
揭晓verbjiē xiǎoto announce publicly
晓得verbxiǎo deto know
知晓verbzhī xiǎoto know
天晓得tiān xiǎo deHeaven knows!
通晓verbtōng xiǎoproficient (in sth)
破晓verbpò xiǎodaybreak
家喻户晓phrasejiā yù hù xiǎounderstood by everyone (idiom)
拂晓nounfú xiǎodaybreak
赫鲁晓夫proper-nounhè lǔ xiǎo fuNikita Khrushchev (1894–1971), secretary-general of Soviet Communist Party 1953–1964
分晓verbfēn xiǎothe result (becomes apparent)
报晓verbbào xiǎoto herald the break of day
无人不晓wú rén bù xiǎoknown to everyone
已见分晓yǐ jiàn fēn xiǎothe result becomes apparent
晓以大义xiǎo yǐ dà yì(idiom) to persuade by appealing to principle
户告人晓hù gào rén xiǎoto make known to every household (idiom)
20
Total compounds
25
As first character
60
As last character
15
As middle character

晓 appears in 20 compound words: 25 as the first character, 60 as the last, and 15 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 晓 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

玲líng
0.52211 co-occurrences
贯guàn
0.51113 co-occurrences
轴zhóu
0.50310 co-occurrences
喻yù
0.500870 co-occurrences
揭jiē
0.4941,375 co-occurrences
赫hè
0.4933,056 co-occurrences
鲁lǔ
0.4913,046 co-occurrences
匹pǐ
0.48411 co-occurrences
刘liú
0.4562,518 co-occurrences
翁wēng
0.42611 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

赫鲁晓夫HèlǔxiǎofūHSK 7+

a transliteration of the Russian surname Хрущёв (Xruščóv), Khrushchev

户告人晓hù gào rén xiǎoHSK 7+

to make known to every household (idiom); to disseminate widely; to shout from the rooftops

phrase
家喻户晓jiāyùhùxiǎoHSK 7+

known to every household; ubiquitously known; widespread; extremely well-known

phrase
晓以大义xiǎo yǐ dà yìHSK 7+

(idiom) to persuade by appealing to principle; to reason with sb on moral grounds

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

家喻户晓的品牌通常有很高的市场认知度。

Jiā yù hù xiǎo de pǐnpái tōngcháng yǒu hěn gāo de shìchǎng rènzhī dù.

Household-name brands usually have high market recognition.

美通社Feb 2026

...026年PPA亚洲职业匹克球巡回赛赛程揭晓,香港大满贯赛将成为压轴赛事

. . . 0 2 6 nián P P A yà zhōu zhí yè pǐ kè qiú xún huí sài sài chéng jiē xiǎo , xiāng gǎng dà mǎn guàn sài jiāng chéng wéi yā zhóu sài shì

... The schedule for the 026 PPA Asian Professional Pickleball Tour has been announced, and the Hong Kong Grand Slam will be the finale

99 健康网Feb 2026

...桃满十八岁可以用的吗?使用前这些要点需知晓

. . . táo mǎn shí bā suì kě yǐ yòng de ma ? shǐ yòng qián zhè xiē yāo diǎn xū zhī xiǎo

... Can peaches be used at the age of eighteen? These points need to be known before use

NewsFeb 2026

财神爷送台湾大礼?翁晓玲:台美贸易协定已无审查必要

cái shén yé sòng tái wān dà lǐ ? wēng xiǎo 玲 tái měi mào yì xié dìng yǐ wú shěn chá bì yāo

God of Wealth Bestows Grand Gift on Taiwan? Weng Xiaoling: No Need for Further Review of Taiwan-U.S. Trade Agreement

百度新闻Feb 2026

外卖骑手黄晓琴:做骑手与社会连接的纽带|在春天许一....

wài mài qí shǒu huáng xiǎo qín zuò qí shǒu yǔ shè huì lián jiē de niǔ dài zài chūn tiān xǔ yī . . . .

Huang Xiaoqin, Food Delivery Rider: Bridging Connections Between Riders and Society | Making a Wish in Spring...

百度新闻Feb 2026

预见金马|财通证券资管马晓立:厚植金融为民底色,以..

yù jiàn jīn mǎ cái tōng zhèng quàn zī guǎn mǎ xiǎo lì hòu zhí jīn róng wéi mín de sè , yǐ . .

Forecasting the Golden Horse Awards | Caitong Securities Asset Management's Ma Xiaoli: Deepening the Foundation of Finance for the People, With...

Tatoeba

汤姆已经知晓了吗?

Tāngmǔ yǐjīng zhīxiǎo le ma?

Does Tom already know?

Tatoeba

您无需通晓多国语言。

Nín wúxū tōngxiǎo duōguó yǔyán.

It doesn't require you to be a polyglot.

Tatoeba

真相总算在我们面前揭晓了。

Zhēnxiàng zǒngsuàn zài wǒmen miànqián jiēxiǎo le.

At last, the truth was revealed to us.

Tatoeba

这则故事最悲情的部分尚未揭晓。

Zhè zé gùshi zuì bēi qíng de bùfen shàngwèi jiēxiǎo.

The saddest part of the story remains to be told.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 日 (sun) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced xiǎo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 晓 (xiǎo) mean in Chinese?
晓 (xiǎo) primarily means "dawn, know." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1349 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 晓 and 烧?
晓 (xiǎo) and 烧 (shāo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 日 vs 火 (same 尧 component).
How many strokes does 晓 have?
晓 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 晓?
The radical associated with 晓 is 日 (sun). This radical appears in many characters related to sun.
What are the components of 晓?
晓 is composed of: 日 (semantic), 尧 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰日尧 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 晓?
Common words with 晓 include: 揭晓 (jiē xiǎo, "to announce publicly"); 晓得 (xiǎo de, "to know"); 知晓 (zhī xiǎo, "to know"); 天晓得 (tiān xiǎo de, "Heaven knows!"); 通晓 (tōng xiǎo, "proficient (in sth)"). There are over 20 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 晓 (xiǎo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xiǎo: 小 (small), 笑 (to laugh). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 晓 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 晓 and the traditional form is 曉.

Practice writing 晓 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.