召 (zhào): to call together, to summon, to convene, temple or monastery (used in place names in Inner Mongolia)

召 (zhào) is a Chinese character meaning “to call together.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 刀 (phonetic) and 口 (semantic). It ranks #1209 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 召 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to call together
  2. to summon
  3. to convene
  4. temple or monastery (used in place names in Inner Mongolia)

Etymology & Origin

召

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿱刀口 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 召

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
召开verbzhào kāito convene (a conference or meeting)5
号召verbhào zhàoto call6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
召唤verbzhào huànto summon
召集verbzhào jíto convene
召回verbzhào huíto recall (a product, an ambassador etc)
征召verbzhēng zhàoto enlist
召见verbzhào jiàncall in (one's subordinates)
召集人nounzhào jí rénconvener
号召力nounhào zhào lìto have the power to rally supporters
感召verbgǎn zhàoto move and appeal
感召力gǎn zhào lìappeal
召募verbzhào mùto recruit
应召verbyìng zhàoto respond to a call
响应号召xiǎng yìng hào zhàoto answer a call to action
应召站yìng zhào zhàncall girl center
应召女郎nounyìng zhào nǚ lángcall girl
选召verbxuǎn zhàochosen and called
26
Total compounds
38
As first character
42
As last character
19
As middle character

召 appears in 26 compound words: 38 as the first character, 42 as the last, and 19 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 召 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

唤huàn
0.6064,317 co-occurrences
开kāi
0.57447,364 co-occurrences
卸xiè
0.57016 co-occurrences
铭míng
0.51810 co-occurrences
集jí
0.48729,712 co-occurrences
敬jìng
0.43510 co-occurrences
征zhēng
0.4275,119 co-occurrences
柯kē
0.41812 co-occurrences
赖lài
0.41516 co-occurrences
回huí
0.40510,644 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

应召女郎yìngzhào nǚlángHSK 5+

call girl

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他召才很好,能言善辩,是个出色的律师。

tā shào cái hěn hǎo , néng yán shàn biàn , shì gě chū sè de lǜ shī .

He is highly talented, eloquent, and an outstanding lawyer.

Swi SwissinfoFeb 2026

婴儿奶粉全球召回:污染源来自中国,是巧合吗?

yīng ér nǎi fěn quán qiú zhào huí : wū rǎn yuán lái zì zhōng guó , shì qiǎo gě ma ?

Global recall of infant milk powder: Is it a coincidence that the source of pollution comes from China?

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

柯建铭万年总召卸任 10年幕僚全说了:跟助理吃苦的长辈

柯 jiàn míng wàn nián zǒng zhào xiè rèn 1 0 nián mù liáo quán shuō le : gēn zhù lǐ chī kǔ de cháng bèi

Ke Jianming's 10-year general summons to step down from his post All the staff said: the elders who endured hardships with their assistants

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

InvestingFeb 2026

沃尔沃汽车因电池过热风险召回超4万辆EX30

wò ěr wò qì chē yīn diàn chí guò rè fēng xiǎn zhào huí chāo 4 wàn liàng E X 3 0

Volvo Cars recalled more than 40,000 EX30s due to the risk of battery overheating

Investing 香港Feb 2026

富豪汽车因电池过热风险召回逾4万辆EX30

fù háo qì chē yīn diàn chí guò rè fēng xiǎn zhào huí yú 4 wàn liàng E X 3 0

Volvo Automobile recalled more than 40,000 EX30s due to the risk of battery overheating

Tatoeba

大使被从华沙召回。

Dàshǐ bèi cóng Huáshā zhàohuí.

The ambassador was recalled from Warsaw.

Tatoeba

会议将在下周日召开。

Huìyì jiāng zàixià Zhōurì zhàokāi.

The meeting will take place next Sunday.

Tatoeba

委员会一个月召开两次。

Wěiyuánhuì yī gè yuè zhàokāi liǎng cì.

The committee meets twice a month.

Tatoeba

那么首先我们应该召开一次家庭会议。

Nàme shǒuxiān wǒmen yīnggāi zhàokāi yīcì jiātíng huìyì.

In that case we should start by having a family meeting.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 口 (mouth) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 召 (zhào) mean in Chinese?
召 (zhào) primarily means "to call together." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1209 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 召 have?
召 is written with 5 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 召?
The radical associated with 召 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 召?
召 is composed of: 刀 (phonetic), 口 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱刀口 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 召?
Common words with 召 include: 召唤 (zhào huàn, "to summon"); 召集 (zhào jí, "to convene"); 召开 (zhào kāi, "to convene (a conference or meeting)"); 召回 (zhào huí, "to recall (a product, an ambassador etc)"); 征召 (zhēng zhào, "to enlist"). There are over 26 compound words containing this character.
Is 召 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 召 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 召 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.