潇 (xiāo): (of water) deep and clear

潇 (xiāo) is a Chinese character meaning “(of water) deep and clear.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 萧 (phonetic). It ranks #2843 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 潇 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 氵 water14 strokesFrequency #2843氵 semantic萧 phonetic

Definitions

  1. (of water) deep and clear

Etymology & Origin

潇

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵萧 (layout: left-right)

Components:氵semantic萧phonetic

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
潇洒xiāo sǎconfident and at ease
潇潇细雨xiāo xiāo xì yǔ(idiom) soft, misty rain
潇湘xiāo xiāngother name of the Xiangjiang river 湘江[Xiang1 jiang1] in Hunan province
潇潇xiāo xiāo(of wind and rain) howling and pounding
4
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

潇 appears in 4 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 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 潇 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

洒sǎ
0.7341,938 co-occurrences
飘piāo
0.44190 co-occurrences
澜lán
0.42490 co-occurrences
陈chén
0.424792 co-occurrences
曹cáo
0.418462 co-occurrences
冯píng
0.413210 co-occurrences
肃sù
0.410198 co-occurrences
晨chén
0.406366 co-occurrences
凌líng
0.381270 co-occurrences
贺hè
0.377114 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

孩子们喜欢在清澈的潇边玩耍，捉小鱼小虾。

hái zǐ men xǐ huān zài qīng 澈 de xiāo biān wán shuǎ , zhuō xiǎo yú xiǎo xiā .

Children love to play along the clear banks of the river, catching little fish and shrimp.

Character Family

氵 Radical Family — Characters sharing the water radical

澳ào滨bīn濒bīn波bō沧cāng测cè潮cháo澈chè澄chéng池chí

Related Characters

水shuǐ汉hàn汽qì没méi洗xǐ渴kě永yǒng求qiú河hé油yóu

Homophones — Characters pronounced xiāo

宵xiāo消xiāo萧xiāo销xiāo小xiǎo晓xiǎo肖xiào效xiào笑xiào削xiāo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 潇 (xiāo) mean in Chinese?
潇 (xiāo) primarily means "(of water) deep and clear." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2843 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 潇 and 浅?
潇 (xiāo) and 浅 (qiǎn) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 潇 (deep) vs 浅 (shallow).
How many strokes does 潇 have?
潇 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 潇?
The radical associated with 潇 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 潇?
潇 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 萧 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵萧 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 潇?
Common words with 潇 include: 潇洒 (xiāo sǎ, "confident and at ease"); 潇潇细雨 (xiāo xiāo xì yǔ, "(idiom) soft, misty rain"); 潇湘 (xiāo xiāng, "other name of the Xiangjiang river 湘江[Xiang1 jiang1] in Hunan province"); 潇潇 (xiāo xiāo, "(of wind and rain) howling and pounding"). There are over 4 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 潇 (xiāo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xiāo: 宵 (night), 消 (to diminish), 萧 ((old) Chinese mugwort), 销 (to melt (metal)), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 潇 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 潇 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 潇 with real-time feedback

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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.