姚 (yáo): surname Yao, handsome, good-looking

姚 (yáo) is a Chinese character meaning “handsome.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 女 (semantic) and 兆 (phonetic). It ranks #4242 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 姚 woman. Its radical form 女 (woman) appears in many related characters such as 女 (nǚ, woman), 她 (tā, she), 好 (hǎo, good).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. surname Yao
  2. handsome
  3. good-looking

Etymology & Origin

姚

pictophoneticwoman

Decomposition: ⿰女兆 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
姚明yáo míngYao Ming (1980-), retired Chinese basketball player, played for CBA Shanghai Sharks 1997-2002 and for NBA Houston Roc...
姚文元yáo wén yuánYao Wenyuan (1931-2005), one of the Gang of Four
余姚市yú yáo shìYuyao, a county-level city in Ningbo City 寧波市|宁波市, Zhejiang
大姚县dà yáo xiànDayao, a county in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture 楚雄彝族自治州, Yunnan
大姚dà yáosee 大姚縣|大姚县
姚安县yáo ān xiànYao'an, a county in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture 楚雄彝族自治州, Yunnan
姚安yáo ānsee 姚安縣|姚安县
姚思廉yáo sī liánYao Silian (557-637), Tang writer and compiler of 梁書|梁书 and 陳書|陈书
余姚proper-nounyú yáosee 餘姚市|余姚市
姚雪垠yáo xuě yínYao Xueyin (1910-1999), PRC novelist, author of historical novel Li Zicheng 李自成
姚滨yáo bīnYao Bin (1957-), PRC champion ice skater during early 1980s and more recently national skating coach
11
Total compounds
64
As first character
18
As last character
18
As middle character

姚 appears in 11 compound words: 64 as the first character, 18 as the last, and 18 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 姚 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

蒲pú
0.87610 co-occurrences
富fù
0.47410 co-occurrences
密mì
0.46110 co-occurrences
夜yè
0.45610 co-occurrences
商shāng
0.38010 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·体育Sep 2026

第54分钟,中国队球员姚伟在对抗中不慎自摆乌龙,导致中国队以0:1落后。

dì 5 4 fēn zhōng , zhōng guó duì qiú yuán yáo wěi zài duì kàng zhōng bù shèn zì bǎi wū lóng , dǎo zhì zhōng guó duì yǐ 0 : 1 luò hòu .

In the 54th minute, Chinese player Yao Wei accidentally scored an own goal during a tackle, putting China behind 0–1.

中国新闻网·体育Sep 2026

本届亚运会女子10米气手枪团体决赛,她与沈奕瑶、姚千寻配合默契,帮助中国队成功卫冕。

běn jiè yà yùn huì nǚ zǐ 1 0 mǐ qì shǒu qiāng tuán tǐ jué sài , tā yǔ shěn yì yáo , yáo qiān xún pèi hé mò qì , bāng zhù zhōng guó duì chéng gōng wèi miǎn .

In the women’s 10-meter air pistol team final at this year’s Asian Games, she worked seamlessly with Shen Yiyao and Yao Qianxun to help the Chinese team successfully defend its title.

中国新闻网·体育Sep 2026

由姚千寻、姜冉馨、沈奕瑶组成的中国队夺得女子10米气手枪团体金牌,成功卫冕。

yóu yáo qiān xún , jiāng rǎn xīn , shěn yì yáo zǔ chéng de zhōng guó duì duó dé nǚ zǐ 1 0 mǐ qì shǒu qiāng tuán tǐ jīn pái , chéng gōng wèi miǎn .

The Chinese team, consisting of Yao Qianxun, Jiang Ranxin, and Shen Yiyao, won the gold medal in the women’s 10-meter air pistol team event, successfully defending their title.

中国新闻网·体育Sep 2026

广东本土组合杨子江/曾姚杰对阵中国选手郑宝罗、中国台北徐传恩。

guǎng dōng běn tǔ zǔ hé yáng zǐ jiāng céng yáo jié duì zhèn zhōng guó xuǎn shǒu zhèng bǎo luó , zhōng guó tái běi xú chuán ēn .

The Guangdong-based pair Yang Zijang and Zeng Yaojie will face Chinese player Zheng Baoluo and Chinese Taipei’s Xu Chuan’en.

中国新闻网·体育Sep 2026

姚晓华/赵玮获得名人赛冠军。

yáo xiǎo huá zhào wěi huò dé míng rén sài guàn jūn .

Yao Xiaohua and Zhao Wei won the Celebrity Tournament.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 女 (woman) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 姚 (yáo) mean in Chinese?
姚 (yáo) primarily means "handsome." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #4242 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 姚 and 跳?
姚 (yáo) and 跳 (tiào) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 女 vs 足 (same 兆 component).
How many strokes does 姚 have?
姚 is written with 9 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 姚?
The radical associated with 姚 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 姚?
姚 is composed of: 女 (semantic), 兆 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女兆 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 姚?
Common words with 姚 include: 姚明 (yáo míng, "Yao Ming (1980-), retired Chinese basketball player, played for CBA Shanghai Sharks 1997-2002 and for NBA Houston Roc..."); 姚文元 (yáo wén yuán, "Yao Wenyuan (1931-2005), one of the Gang of Four"); 余姚市 (yú yáo shì, "Yuyao, a county-level city in Ningbo City 寧波市|宁波市, Zhejiang"); 大姚县 (dà yáo xiàn, "Dayao, a county in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture 楚雄彝族自治州, Yunnan"); 大姚 (dà yáo, "see 大姚縣|大姚县"). There are over 11 compound words containing this character.
Is 姚 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 姚 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 姚 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.