HSK 3 · Body

口 kǒu “mouth” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 口 means

  1. mouth
  2. classifier for things with mouths (people, domestic animals, cannons, wells etc)
  3. classifier for bites or mouthfuls

How to say 口

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale口kǒu3rd tone, dipping

口 in a sentence

  1. 他开口了。

    Tā kāikǒu le.

    He finally spoke.

    Sentence #9409627 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你想尝一口吗？

    Nǐ xiǎng cháng yì kǒu ma?

    Would you like a taste?

    Sentence #8945698 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 口 can also mean “opening; entrance”

    博物馆的入口在哪？

    Bówùguǎn de rùkǒu zài nǎ?

    Where’s the entrance to the museum?

    Sentence #382890 from Tatoeba

How 口 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 口 (kǒu) with each of its parts in a different colour
口kǒumouth
  • 冂down box · jiōng
  • 一one · yī

Memory aidDrawn from an open mouth.

How to write 口

口 3 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

口 (kǒu) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 口 (kǒu). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 口

Words with 口

门口ménkǒu · doorway路口lùkǒu · intersection入口rùkǒu · entrance口味kǒuwèi · taste胃口wèikǒu · appetite借口jièkǒu · to use as an excuse出口chūkǒu · exit进口jìnkǒu · to import人口rénkǒu · population可口kěkǒu · tasty

More words: People, Body & Health

感冒gǎnmào · catch cold个子gèzi · height健康jiànkāng · health脚jiǎo · foot body part脸liǎn · face舒服shūfu · comfortable疼téng · ache头发tóufa · hair on the head

FAQs

口 (kǒu) means “mouth” or “classifier for things with mouths (people, domestic animals, cannons, wells etc)”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it kǒu: kǒu with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 口 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 口 from the suggestions. Typing kou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
口 is an HSK 3 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.