HSK 6 · Verbs

熬 áo “to endure” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 熬 means

  1. to endure
  2. to stew
  3. to boil
  4. to cook on a slow fire
  5. to extract by heating
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to decoct

How to say 熬

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale熬áo2nd tone, rising

熬 in a sentence

  1. 他养成了熬夜的习惯。

    Tā yǎngchéng le áoyè de xíguàn.

    He’s got into the habit of staying up late.

    Sentence #1516177 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你最好不要熬夜。

    Nǐ zuìhǎo bú yào áoyè.

    You’d better not stay up late.

    Sentence #908030 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我熬夜熬多久都行。

    Wǒ áoyè áo duōjiǔ dōu xíng.

    I can stay up as late as I like.

    Sentence #9955856 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 熬 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 熬 (áo) with each of its parts in a different colour
熬áoto cook on a slow fire
  • 敖to ramble · ÁoSound part
  • 灬fire form of 火 · huǒMeaning part

灬 hints at the meaning (fire); 敖 (Áo) hints at the sound. Compare it with áo.

How to write 熬

熬 14 strokes

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

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

Words related to 熬

Words with 熬

More words: Common Verbs

FAQs

熬 (áo) means “to endure” or “to stew”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it áo: áo with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 熬 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 熬 from the suggestions. Typing ao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
熬 is an HSK 6 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.