(zhào): (bound form) omen, to foretell, million, mega-

(zhào) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) omen.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural). It ranks #2190 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, cracks in oracle bones used in fortune-telling. Its radical form (legs) appears in many related characters such as (ér, child), (yuán, Yuan dynasty (1279–1368)), (xiān, beforehand).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) omen
  2. to foretell
  3. million
  4. mega-

Etymology & Origin

pictographicCracks in oracle bones used in fortune-telling

Components:structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
zhēng zhàoomen
yù zhàoomen
zhào touomen
qián zhàoomen
zhào hèmegahertz
xiān zhàoomen
xiōng zhàoill omen
zhào wǎmegawatt
bù xiáng zhī zhào(idiom) bad omen
jí zhàolucky omen
zhào diàn zǐ fúmega electron volt (MeV) (unit of energy equal to 1.6 x 10⁻¹³ joules)
zhào zì jiémegabyte (2^20 or approximately a million bytes)
zhào wǎ shímegawatt-hour
zhào wǎ tèmegawatt
zhào zhōumegacycle (MC), equals 1,000,000 Hz
20
Total compounds
40
As first character
60
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 20 compound words: 40 as the first character, 60 as the last, and 0 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

lín
0.5396,564 co-occurrences
xuān
0.494660 co-occurrences
jīng
0.46919,512 co-occurrences
xiáng
0.4655,088 co-occurrences
0.4301,338 co-occurrences
yáng
0.4193,702 co-occurrences
0.4187,368 co-occurrences
0.4134,524 co-occurrences
zhū
0.4014,302 co-occurrences
0.3989,564 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

bùxiángzhīzhàoHSK 7+

ill or evil omen; bad sign

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字的写法很特别,让我印象深刻。

zhào zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The way the character for "trillion" is written is quite unique and left a deep impression on me.

NewtalkFeb 2026

台股大盘今成交量首破1元、指数仅涨1点作收 是惊奇还是危机讯号...

tái gǔ dà pán jīn chéng jiāo liàng shǒu pò 1 zhào yuán , zhǐ shǔ jǐn zhǎng 1 diǎn zuò shōu shì jīng qí hái shì wēi jī xùn hào . . .

The trading volume of the Taiwan stock market today exceeded 1 trillion yuan for the first time, and the index only rose 1 point to close, whether it was a surprise or a crisis signal...

DigitimesFeb 2026

...险、AI泡沫疑虑伤不了 台积电市值首破2美元

. . . xiǎn , A I pāo mò yí lǜ shāng bù le tái jī diàn shì zhí shǒu pò 2 zhào měi yuán

... Doubts about insurance and AI bubbles can't hurt TSMC's market value exceeded $2 trillion for the first time

LtnFeb 2026

...家中长辈21项警讯 网红医:恐认知障碍前

. . . jiā zhōng cháng bèi 2 1 xiàng jǐng xùn wǎng hóng yī : kǒng rèn zhī zhàng ài qián zhào

... 21 warning signs for elders in the family Internet celebrity doctor: fear of precursor to cognitive impairment

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

货币基金规模攀至1.2

huò bì jī jīn guī mó pān zhì 1 . 2 zhào yuán

The scale of the monetary fund climbed to 1.2 trillion yuan

工商時報Feb 2026

日本“猫经济”直逼3日圆 几乎追平大阪世博

rì běn māo jīng jì zhí bī 3 zhào rì yuán jī hū zhuī píng dà 阪 shì bó

Japan's "cat economy" is approaching 3 trillion yen, almost tying the Osaka World Expo

Tatoeba

你认为这是个预吗?

Nǐ rèn wèi zhè shì gè yùzhào ma?

Do you think it's a sign?

Tatoeba

乌云是下雨的征

Wūyún shì xiàyǔ de zhēngzhào.

Dark clouds are a sign of rain.

Tatoeba

事情发生之前都会有先

Shìqing fāshēng zhīqián dōu huì yǒu xiānzhào.

Coming events cast their shadows before them.

Tatoeba

他的懒惰是他未来不好的预

Tā de lǎnduò shì tā wèilái bù hǎo de yùzhào.

His laziness boded ill for the future.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 兆 (zhào) mean in Chinese?
兆 (zhào) primarily means "(bound form) omen." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2190 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 兆 have?
兆 is written with 6 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 兆?
The radical associated with 兆 is 儿 (legs). This radical appears in many characters related to legs.
What are the components of 兆?
兆 is composed of: 儿 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 兆?
Common words with 兆 include: 征兆 (zhēng zhào, "omen"); 预兆 (yù zhào, "omen"); 兆头 (zhào tou, "omen"); 前兆 (qián zhào, "omen"); 兆赫 (zhào hè, "megahertz"). There are over 20 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 兆 (zhào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhào: 招 (to recruit, 招手), 爪 (foot of a bird or animal), 找 (to look for), 沼 (pond), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 兆 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 兆 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.