谣 (yáo): popular ballad, rumor

谣 (yáo) is a Chinese character meaning “popular ballad.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 讠 (semantic) and 䍃 (phonetic). It ranks #2490 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 谣 speech. Its radical form 讠 (speech) appears in many related characters such as 认 (rèn, to recognize, to admit), 记 (jì, to remember, to record), 识 (shí, to know, knowledge).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. popular ballad
  2. rumor

Etymology & Origin

谣

pictophoneticspeech

Decomposition: ⿰讠䍃 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
谣言nounyáo yánrumor
民谣nounmín yáoballad
谣传nounyáo chuánrumor
造谣verbzào yáoto start a rumor
歌谣noungē yáofolksong
童谣nountóng yáonursery rhyme
辟谣verbpì yáoto refute a rumor
造谣生事phrasezào yáo shēng shìto start rumours and create trouble
大谣dà yáohigh-profile rumormonger (esp. on a microblog)
谣言惑众yáo yán huò zhòngto mislead the public with rumors
传谣chuán yáoto spread rumors
黄谣nounhuáng yáosexual rumor (abbr. for 黃色謠言|黄色谣言)
12
Total compounds
25
As first character
67
As last character
8
As middle character

谣 appears in 12 compound words: 25 as the first character, 67 as the last, and 8 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 谣 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

辟pì
0.617609 co-occurrences
言yán
0.5203,589 co-occurrences
诽fěi
0.50190 co-occurrences
谤bàng
0.47980 co-occurrences
歌gē
0.4462,240 co-occurrences
传chuán
0.4281,116 co-occurrences
滚gǔn
0.421114 co-occurrences
童tóng
0.414576 co-occurrences
摇yáo
0.412112 co-occurrences
蔑miè
0.41248 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

谣言惑众yáo yán huò zhòngHSK 7+

to mislead the public with rumors; to delude the people with lies

phrase
造谣生事zàoyáoshēngshìHSK 7+

to cause trouble by spreading rumours

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他谣言谨慎,从不说没有根据的话。

tā yáo yán jǐn shèn , cóng bù shuō méi yǒu gēn jù de huà .

He is cautious about rumors and never speaks without evidence.

The Beijing NewsMar 2026

...韩红被AI替身、健康出现问题?本人露面辟谣:好着呢

. . . hán hóng bèi A I tì shēn , jiàn kāng chū xiàn wèn tí ? běn rén lù miàn pì yáo : hǎo zhe ne

...Han Hong Replaced by an AI Stand-in, Health Issues? She Appears in Person to Debunk the Rumors: "I'm Just Fine"

It之家Mar 2026

... ·AI 向善”专项行动,重点整治“虚假谣言”等五类涉 AI 领域网络乱象

. . . A I xiàng shàn zhuān xiàng háng dòng , chóng diǎn zhěng zhì xū jiǎ yáo yán děng wǔ lèi shè A I lǐng yù wǎng lào luàn xiàng

... ·The "AI for Good" special campaign, which focuses on addressing five categories of online misconduct in the AI sector, including "false rumors"

LtnFeb 2026

嘉市长选举传黄敏惠暗助王美惠 副市长辟谣:分化国民党

jiā shì cháng xuǎn jǔ chuán huáng mǐn huì àn zhù wáng měi huì fù shì cháng pì yáo : fēn huà guó mín dǎng

Jia mayoral election rumored that Huang Minhui secretly helped Wang Meihui Deputy mayor refuted rumors: divide the Kuomintang

It之家Feb 2026

《使命召唤》官方辟谣,否认存在独立的僵尸模式游戏

shǐ mìng zhào huàn guān fāng pì yáo , fǒu rèn cún zài dú lì de jiāng shī mó shì yóu xì

"Call of Duty" officially refuted the rumors, denying the existence of a separate zombie mode game

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

...?车厘子含褪黑素可助眠?科学流言榜最新辟谣

. . . ? chē lí zǐ hán 褪 hēi sù kě zhù mián ? kē xué liú yán bǎng zuì xīn pì yáo

...? Can cherries contain melatonin to help you sleep? The latest rumors on the scientific rumor list

Tatoeba

谣言是毫无根据的。

Yáoyán shì háowú gēnjù de.

The rumors are unfounded.

Tatoeba

我不信谣言。你信吗?

Wǒ bù xìn yáoyán. nǐ xìn ma?

I don't believe the rumours. Do you believe them?

Tatoeba

它揭示了谣言的真相。

Tā jiēshì le yáoyán de zhēnxiàng.

It proved the truth of the rumor.

Tatoeba

谣言最后被证明是假的。

Yáoyán zuì hòu bèi zhèngmíng shì jiǎde.

The rumor turned out to be false.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 讠 (speech) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced yáo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 谣 (yáo) mean in Chinese?
谣 (yáo) primarily means "popular ballad." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2490 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 谣 have?
谣 is written with 12 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 谣?
The radical associated with 谣 is 讠 (speech). This radical appears in many characters related to speech.
What are the components of 谣?
谣 is composed of: 讠 (semantic), 䍃 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰讠䍃 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 谣?
Common words with 谣 include: 谣言 (yáo yán, "rumor"); 民谣 (mín yáo, "ballad"); 谣传 (yáo chuán, "rumor"); 造谣 (zào yáo, "to start a rumor"); 歌谣 (gē yáo, "folksong"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 谣 (yáo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yáo: 摇 (to shake), 遥 ((bound form) distant), 瑶 (Yao ethnic group of southwest China and southeast Asia), 要 (to want), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 谣 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 谣 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 谣 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.