HSK 5 · Verbs

靠 kào “to lean on” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 靠 means

  1. to lean on
  2. to rely on
  3. near
  4. to lean against or on
  5. to stand by the side of
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to come near to
  • to depend on
  • to trust

How to say 靠

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale靠kào4th tone, falling

靠 in a sentence

  1. 她靠写作生活。

    Tā kào xiězuò shēnghuó.

    She makes a living from writing.

    Sentence #375285 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我必须靠自己做所有事。

    Wǒ bìxū kào zìjǐ zuò suǒyǒu shì.

    I have to do everything by myself.

    Sentence #5911630 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 靠 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 靠 (kào) with each of its parts in a different colour
靠kàoto lean against or on
  • 告to tell · gàoSound part
  • 非wrong · fēiMeaning part

非 hints at the meaning (wrong); 告 (gào) hints at the sound. Compare it with kào.

How to write 靠

靠 15 strokes

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

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

Words related to 靠

Words with 靠

可靠kěkào · reliable靠拢kàolǒng · to draw close依靠yīkào · to rely on

More words: Common Verbs

鼓掌gǔzhǎng · to applaud戒jiè · to give up (a habit)集合jíhé · to gather看望kànwàng · to visit扩大kuòdà · to expand亮liàng · bright碰pèng · to touch签qiān · to sign (one’s name)

FAQs

靠 (kào) means “to lean on” or “to rely on”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it kào: kào with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 靠 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 靠 from the suggestions. Typing kao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
靠 is an HSK 5 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.