藻 (zǎo): aquatic grasses, elegant

藻 (zǎo) is a Chinese character meaning “aquatic grasses.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (semantic) and 澡 (phonetic). It ranks #2527 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 藻 grass. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 花 (huā, flower), 茶 (chá, tea), 菜 (cài, vegetable, dish).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 艹 grass19 strokesFrequency #2527艹 semantic澡 phonetic

Definitions

  1. aquatic grasses
  2. elegant

Etymology & Origin

藻

pictophoneticgrass

Decomposition: ⿱艹澡 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:艹semantic澡phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
海藻hǎi zǎoseaweed
藻类zǎo lèialgae
词藻cí zǎorhetoric
绿藻lǜ zǎogreen algae
辞藻cí zǎorhetoric
螺旋藻luó xuán zǎospiral algae
蓝藻lán zǎocyanobacterium (blue-green alga)
硅藻guī zǎodiatom (single-celled phytoplankton)
金鱼藻jīn yú zǎohornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum)
玩弄词藻wán nòng cí zǎoto juggle with words (dishonestly)
蓝藻门lán zǎo ménCyanobacteria (phylum of blue-green algae)
眼虫藻yǎn chóng zǎoeuglena (biology)
单胞藻dān bāo zǎosingle-celled algae
硅藻门guī zǎo ménBacillariophyta, phylum of diatom single-celled phytoplankton
藻华zǎo huáalgal bloom
19
Total compounds
11
As first character
79
As last character
11
As middle character

藻 appears in 19 compound words: 11 as the first character, 79 as the last, and 11 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 藻 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

狸lí
0.6927,320 co-occurrences
礁jiāo
0.4921,542 co-occurrences
凤fèng
0.4882,376 co-occurrences
囊náng
0.4491,014 co-occurrences
蓝lán
0.4381,524 co-occurrences
卵luǎn
0.4361,050 co-occurrences
壳qiào
0.432618 co-occurrences
骏jùn
0.417258 co-occurrences
汪wāng
0.411948 co-occurrences
绳shéng
0.402300 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

藻字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

zǎo zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The character "藻" has different usages in different contexts.

Character Family

艹 Radical Family — Characters sharing the grass radical

蔼ǎi艾ài芭bā薄báo蔽bì菜cài苍cāng藏zàng草cǎo茶chá

Related Characters

花huā茶chá菜cài节jié英yīng草cǎo药yào蓝lán艺yì苦kǔ

Homophones — Characters pronounced zǎo

遭zāo糟zāo凿záo早zǎo枣zǎo澡zǎo灶zào皂zào造zào噪zào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 藻 (zǎo) mean in Chinese?
藻 (zǎo) primarily means "aquatic grasses." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2527 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 藻 have?
藻 is written with 19 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 藻?
The radical associated with 藻 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 藻?
藻 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 澡 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹澡 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 藻?
Common words with 藻 include: 海藻 (hǎi zǎo, "seaweed"); 藻类 (zǎo lèi, "algae"); 词藻 (cí zǎo, "rhetoric"); 绿藻 (lǜ zǎo, "green algae"); 辞藻 (cí zǎo, "rhetoric"). There are over 19 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 藻 (zǎo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zǎo: 遭 (to meet by chance (usually with misfortune)), 糟 (dregs), 凿 ((bound form) chisel), 早 (early, morning), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 藻 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 藻 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 藻 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

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.