诏 (zhào): (literary) to admonish, (bound form) imperial edict

诏 (zhào) is a Chinese character meaning “(literary) to admonish.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical 讠 (speech). It ranks #4765 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 讠 speech7 strokesFrequency #4765

Definitions

  1. (literary) to admonish
  2. (bound form) imperial edict

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
诏书zhào shūimperial edict
下诏xià zhàoto hand down an imperial edict
南诏国nán zhào guóNanzhao, 8th and 9th century kingdom in Yunnan, at times allied with Tang against Tibetan Tubo pressure
应诏yìng zhàoto respond to an imperial decree
诏安zhào ānsee 詔安縣|诏安县[Zhao4 an1 Xian4]
诏令zhào lìngimperial order
先帝遗诏xiān dì yí zhàoposthumous edict of a former emperor
南诏nán zhàoNanzhao kingdom 738-937 in southwest China and southeast Asia
密诏mì zhàosecret imperial edict
待诏dài zhàoexpert in a specialized field such as medicine, divination or chess, available on call to the emperor (in the Tang an...
诏安县zhào ān xiànZhao'an, a county in Zhangzhou City 漳州市[Zhang1 zhou1 Shi4], Fujian
遗诏yí zhàoposthumous edict (of former emperor)
诏狱zhào yùimperial prison (for prisoners detained by order of the emperor)
奉诏fèng zhàoto receive an imperial command
诏旨zhào zhǐimperial edict
17
Total compounds
41
As first character
53
As last character
6
As middle character

诏 appears in 17 compound words: 41 as the first character, 53 as the last, and 6 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们诏字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men zhào zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "诏."

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 诏 (zhào) mean in Chinese?
诏 (zhào) primarily means "(literary) to admonish." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #4765 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 诏 have?
诏 is written with 7 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 诏?
The radical associated with 诏 is 讠 (speech). This radical appears in many characters related to speech.
What are common words containing 诏?
Common words with 诏 include: 诏书 (zhào shū, "imperial edict"); 下诏 (xià zhào, "to hand down an imperial edict"); 南诏国 (nán zhào guó, "Nanzhao, 8th and 9th century kingdom in Yunnan, at times allied with Tang against Tibetan Tubo pressure"); 应诏 (yìng zhào, "to respond to an imperial decree"); 诏安 (zhào ān, "see 詔安縣|诏安县[Zhao4 an1 Xian4]"). There are over 17 compound words containing this character.
Is 诏 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 诏 and the traditional form is 詔.

Practice writing 诏 with real-time feedback

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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.