照 (zhào): shine, according to

照 (zhào) is a Chinese character meaning “shine, according to.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 昭 (phonetic) and 灬 (semantic). It ranks #443 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 照 fire. Its radical form 灬 (fire) appears in many related characters such as 点 (diǎn, point, o'clock), 热 (rè, hot, to heat), 然 (rán, nature, thus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. shine, according to

Etymology & Origin

照

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿱昭灬 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 照

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
照片nounzhào piànphotograph3
照顾verbzhào guto take care of3
按照prepositionàn zhàoaccording to4
拍照verbpāi zhàoto take a picture3
护照nounhù zhàopassport3
驾照nounjià zhàodriver's license (abbr. for 駕駛執照|驾驶执照)5
照相verbzhào xiàngto take a photograph3
照明verbzhào mínglighting6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
照看verbzhào kànto look after
执照nounzhí zhàolicense
关照verbguān zhàoto take care
照相机nounzhào xiàng jīcamera
照料verbzhào liàoto tend
牌照nounpái zhào(business) license
照办verbzhào bànto follow the rules
照样adverbzhào yàngas before
照亮verbzhào liàngto illuminate
依照verbyī zhàoaccording to
照耀verbzhào yàoto shine
照镜子verbzhào jìng zito look in the mirror
照常adverbzhào chángas usual
遵照verbzūn zhàoin accordance with
照射verbzhào shèto shine on
100
Total compounds
46
As first character
41
As last character
13
As middle character

照 appears in 100 compound words: 46 as the first character, 41 as the last, and 13 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 照 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

按àn
0.58569,815 co-occurrences
依yī
0.55933,080 co-occurrences
片piàn
0.52982,439 co-occurrences
顾gù
0.5177,836 co-occurrences
拍pāi
0.45812,869 co-occurrences
仿fǎng
0.4584,438 co-occurrences
遵zūn
0.4553,926 co-occurrences
护hù
0.44310,562 co-occurrences
晒shài
0.43748 co-occurrences
牌pái
0.41411,066 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

肝胆相照gāndǎnxiāngzhàoHSK 6+

to treat one another with absolute sincerity; to show total devotion

phrase
驾驶执照jiàshǐ zhízhàoHSK 5+

driver's license; driving license

noun
请多关照qǐng duō guānzhàoHSK 3+

please treat me kindly (a conventional phrase on first meeting)

phrase
心照不宣xīnzhàobùxuānHSK 5+

to understand something but not voice it; to have a tacit understanding

phrase
照本宣科zhàoběnxuānkēHSK 5+

to repeat exactly what is written in the script or book

phrase
照猫画虎zhàomāohuàhǔHSK 4+

to copy or imitate slavishly without attempt at originality

phrase

Showing 6 of 7 idioms containing 照.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请按照说明书上的步骤操作,不要跳过任何环节。

Qǐng ànzhào shuōmíngshū shang de bùzhòu cāozuò, búyào tiàoguò rènhé huánjié.

Please follow the steps in the manual and do not skip any steps.

LtnFeb 2026

在汽旅毒杀2男!韩国蛇蝎美人照片曝光 IG粉丝暴涨50倍

zài qì lǚ dú shā 2 nán ! hán guó shé 蝎 měi rén zhào piàn pù guāng I G fěn sī bào zhǎng 5 0 bèi

Poisoned 2 men in the automobile tour! Korean femme fatale photos exposed IG fans soared 50 times

LtnFeb 2026

经典赛》王建民撞脸SJ希澈的飘发照 韩媒也关注

jīng diǎn sài wáng jiàn mín zhuàng liǎn S J xī chè de piāo fā zhào hán méi yě guān zhù

Classic" Wang Jianmin hit SJ Heechul's hair photo in the face Korean media also paid attention

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...杨偲泳性感镜头疑遭刻意删减 公开绝密福利照凭歌寄意回应

. . . yáng 偲 yǒng xìng gǎn jìng tóu yí zāo kè yì shān jiǎn gōng kāi jué mì fú lì zhào píng gē jì yì huí yīng

... Yang Siyong's sexy scenes are suspected of being deliberately deleted, and the public top-secret welfare photos respond with songs

StheadlineFeb 2026

TVB视帝黄宗泽晒童年照吸引4千万人围观 6岁潮男Chok样曝光...

T V B shì dì huáng zōng zé shài tóng nián zhào xī yǐn 4 qiān wàn rén wéi guàn 6 suì cháo nán C h o k yàng pù guāng . . .

TVB TV emperor Huang Zongze posted childhood photos to attract 40 million onlookers 6-year-old trendy man Chok appearance exposed...

百度新闻Feb 2026

春晚这扇“窗”,照见中国机器人产业“跑”出倍速

chūn wǎn zhè shān chuāng , zhào jiàn zhōng guó jī qì rén chǎn yè pǎo chū bèi sù

Spring Festival Gala this "window", see China's robotics industry "run" out of times speed

Tatoeba

你能用这台相机帮我们拍张照吗?

Nǐ néng yòng zhè tái xiàngjī bāng wǒmen pāi zhāng zhào ma?

Would you take a picture of us with this camera?

Tatoeba

要是我死了,谁来照顾我的孩子们?

Yàoshi wǒ sǐ le, shéi lái zhàogu wǒ de háizimen?

Were I to die, who would look after my children?

Tatoeba

我们可以在大楼里拍照吗?

Wǒmen kěyǐ zài dàlóu lǐ pāizhào ma?

Is it all right to take pictures in this building?

Tatoeba

请让我看一下您的护照好吗?

Qǐng ràng wǒ kàn yīxià nín de hùzhào hǎo ma?

May I see your passport, please?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 灬 (fire) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 照 (zhào) mean in Chinese?
照 (zhào) primarily means "shine, according to." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #443 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 照 have?
照 is written with 13 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 照?
The radical associated with 照 is 灬 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 照?
照 is composed of: 昭 (phonetic), 灬 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱昭灬 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 照?
Common words with 照 include: 照片 (zhào piàn, "photograph"); 照顾 (zhào gu, "to take care of"); 按照 (àn zhào, "according to"); 拍照 (pāi zhào, "to take a picture"); 照看 (zhào kàn, "to look after"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 照 (zhào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhào: 找 (to look for), 招 (to recruit, 招手), 赵 (one of the seven states during the Warring States period (476–220 BC)), 罩 (to cover), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 照 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 照 and the traditional form is 炤.

Practice writing 照 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.