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

诏 (zhào) is a Chinese character meaning “(literary) to admonish.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 讠 (structural) and 召 (structural). It ranks #4765 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 诏 to issue 讠 a decree 召; 召 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 讠 (speech) appears in many related characters such as 话 (huà, speech, words), 说 (shuō, to speak, to say), 请 (qǐng, please, to invite).

Spoken pronunciation
Radical: 讠 speech7 strokesFrequency #4765讠 structural召 structural

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

诏

ideographicTo issue 讠 a decree 召; 召 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰讠召 (layout: left-right)

Components:讠structural召structural

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nounzhào shūimperial edict
先帝遗诏xiān dì yí zhàoposthumous edict of a former emperor
南诏国nán zhào guóNanzhao, 8th and 9th century kingdom in Yunnan, at times allied with Tang against Tibetan Tubo pressure
诏安县zhào ān xiànZhao'an, a county in Zhangzhou City 漳州市, Fujian
下诏verbxià zhàoto hand down an imperial edict
应诏verbyìng zhàoto respond to an imperial decree
诏安proper-nounzhào ānsee 詔安縣|诏安县
诏令verbzhào lìngimperial order
南诏proper-nounnán zhàoNanzhao kingdom 738-937 in southwest China and southeast Asia
密诏nounmì zhàosecret imperial edict
待诏verbdài zhàoexpert in a specialized field such as medicine, divination or chess, available on call to the emperor (in the Tang an...
遗诏nounyí zhàoposthumous edict (of former emperor)
诏狱nounzhào yùimperial prison (for prisoners detained by order of the emperor)
奉诏verbfèng zhàoto receive an imperial command
诏旨nounzhào 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."

中国新闻网·文化Oct 2026

公元747年，唐玄宗一纸诏书，将黟山更名为黄山。

gōng yuán 7 4 7 nián , táng xuán zōng yī zhǐ zhào shū , jiāng 黟 shān gèng míng wéi huáng shān .

In 747 AD, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty issued an imperial edict renaming Mount Yi as Mount Huang.

Character Family

讠 Radical Family — Characters sharing the speech radical

说shuō话huà认rèn该gāi记jì识shí请qǐng试shì讲jiǎng谢xiè

Related Characters

话huà说shuō请qǐng认rèn识shí记jì讲jiǎng该gāi谢xiè试shì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 诏 (zhào) mean in Chinese?
诏 (zhào) primarily means "(literary) to admonish." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. 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 the components of 诏?
诏 is composed of: 讠 (structural), 召 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰讠召 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 诏?
Common words with 诏 include: 诏书 (zhào shū, "imperial edict"); 先帝遗诏 (xiān dì yí zhào, "posthumous edict of a former emperor"); 南诏国 (nán zhào guó, "Nanzhao, 8th and 9th century kingdom in Yunnan, at times allied with Tang against Tibetan Tubo pressure"); 诏安县 (zhào ān xiàn, "Zhao'an, a county in Zhangzhou City 漳州市, Fujian"); 下诏 (xià zhào, "to hand down an imperial edict"). 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.