HSK 2 · Common Verbs

笑 xiào “to laugh” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 笑 means

  1. to laugh, smile
  2. to laugh at

How to say 笑

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale笑xiào4th tone, falling

笑 in a sentence

  1. 你在笑什么呢？

    Nǐ zài xiào shénme ne?

    What’re you laughing at?

    Sentence #4879268 from Tatoeba

  2. 宝宝对我笑了。

    Bǎobao duì wǒ xiào le.

    The baby smiled at me.

    Sentence #791573 from Tatoeba

  3. 大家笑了。

    Dàjiā xiào le.

    Everyone laughed.

    Sentence #762992 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 笑 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 笑 (xiào) with each of its parts in a different colour
笑xiàoto laugh; to smile
  • ⺮bamboo form of 竹 · zhú
  • 夭young · yāo

How to write 笑

笑 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 笑

Words with 笑

笑话xiàohua · joke开玩笑kāiwánxiào · to play a joke微笑wēixiào · smile嘲笑cháoxiào · to mock讥笑jīxiào · to sneer at

More words: Common Verbs

进jìn · to enter出chū · to go out给gěi · to give让ràng · to let跳舞tiàowǔ · to dance唱歌chànggē · to sing旅游lǚyóu · to travel游泳yóuyǒng · to swim

FAQs

笑 (xiào) means “to laugh, smile” or “to laugh at”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it xiào: xiào with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 笑 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xiao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 笑 from the suggestions. Typing xiao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
笑 is an HSK 2 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.