(xiāo): night

(xiāo) is a Chinese character meaning “night.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2817 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, roof. Its radical form (roof) appears in many related characters such as (, guest, customer), (jiā, home, family), (, it).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. night

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticroof

Decomposition: ⿱宀肖 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounyuán xiāoLantern Festival6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
tōng xiāoall night
xiāo jìnnight curfew
yè xiāomidnight snack
tōng xiāo dá dànovernight until daybreak (idiom)
dǎ tōng xiāoto spend the whole night
liáng xiāo měi jǐngfine evening, beautiful scenery (idiom)
yè xiāo rerhua variant of 夜宵[ye4 xiao1]
yuán xiāo jiéLantern Festival, the final event of the Spring Festival 春節|春节, on 15th of first month of the lunar calendar
dài xiāo cǎoevening primrose
xiāo xiǎothief
xiāo yī gàn shíto dress before light and not eat before dark (idiom)
lián xiāothe same night
xiāo yèmidnight snack
xiāo zhēngnight journey
chūn xiāo(literary) spring night
16
Total compounds
31
As first character
38
As last character
31
As middle character

appears in 16 compound words: 31 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 31 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.

shè
0.63312 co-occurrences
jīn
0.4935,352 co-occurrences
0.4835,706 co-occurrences
tōng
0.44414,623 co-occurrences
shēn
0.4354,968 co-occurrences
jīn
0.4326,492 co-occurrences
yuán
0.4299,770 co-occurrences
huǒ
0.42715 co-occurrences
zhēn
0.4141,446 co-occurrences
nào
0.413228 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

liáng xiāo měi jǐngHSK 6+

fine evening, beautiful scenery (idiom)

phrase
tōngxiāodádànHSK 6+

all the night until daybreak

phrase
xiāoyīgànshíHSK 6+

Very hard-working.

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

佳节,灯火通明。

Yuán xiāo jiājié, dēnghuǒ tōngmíng.

During the Lantern Festival, lights shine brightly.

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

健康吃元 中医师教用中药做养生元

jiàn kāng chī yuán xiāo zhōng yī shī jiào yòng zhōng yào zuò yǎng shēng yuán xiāo

Eat lanterns healthily Chinese medicine practitioners teach the use of traditional Chinese medicine for health Lantern Festival

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...大劈价!北京上海等热门航线低至200 元前后出行最抵

. . . dà pī jià ! běi jīng shàng hǎi děng rè mén háng xiàn dī zhì 2 0 0 yuán xiāo qián hòu chū háng zuì dǐ

... Big bargain! Popular routes such as Beijing and Shanghai are as low as 200 yuan, and travel around the Lantern Festival is the most cost-effective

LtnFeb 2026

台南新市「鬧元」 明起連6天封街登場

tái nán xīn shì 鬧 yuán xiāo míng qǐ 連 tiān fēng jiē dēng 場

Tainan's Xinshi District "Lantern Festival Celebration" Kicks Off Tomorrow with Six Days of Street Closures

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

夜月全食 全台可見紅月

yuán xiāo yè yuè quán shí quán tái kě 見 紅 yuè

The total lunar eclipse during the Lantern Festival can be seen all over Taiwan

Hk01.comFeb 2026

上海財神廟開通 香爐起火驚動消防? 官方:射水降溫安全...

shàng hǎi 財 shén 廟 開 tōng xiāo xiāng 爐 qǐ huǒ 驚 動 xiāo fáng ? guān fāng shè shuǐ jiàng 溫 ān quán . . .

Shanghai God of Wealth Temple Opens Overnight Incense Burner Fire Alarms Fire Department? Authorities: Water Spray Cooling Is Safe...

Tatoeba

全体销售人员通达旦地工作了一周。

Quántǐ xiāoshòu rényuán tōngxiāo-dádàn de gōngzuò le yī zhōu.

The entire sales staff has worked around the clock for a week.

Tatoeba

这儿是他们通常吃夜的地方。

Zhèr shì tāmen tōngcháng chī xiāoyè de dìfang.

This is where they usually eat supper.

Tatoeba

玩游戏很伤身体的。

Tōngxiāo wán yóuxì hěn shāng shēntǐ de.

Playing games all night is very harmful to your health.

Tatoeba

节要猜灯谜。

Yuánxiāojié yào cāi dēngmí.

It is a must to guess lantern riddles during the Lantern Festival.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced xiāo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 宵 (xiāo) mean in Chinese?
宵 (xiāo) primarily means "night." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2817 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 宵 and 日?
宵 (xiāo) and 日 (rì) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 宵 (night) vs 日 (day).
How many strokes does 宵 have?
宵 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 宵?
The radical associated with 宵 is 宀 (roof). This radical appears in many characters related to roof.
What are the components of 宵?
宵 is composed of: 宀 (semantic), 肖 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱宀肖 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 宵?
Common words with 宵 include: 通宵 (tōng xiāo, "all night"); 宵禁 (xiāo jìn, "night curfew"); 元宵 (yuán xiāo, "Lantern Festival"); 夜宵 (yè xiāo, "midnight snack"); 通宵达旦 (tōng xiāo dá dàn, "overnight until daybreak (idiom)"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 宵 (xiāo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xiāo: 消 (to diminish), 销 (to melt (metal)), 削 (to peel with a knife), 萧 ((old) Chinese mugwort). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 宵 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 宵 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.