HSK 3 · Nature

草 cǎo “grass” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 草 means

  1. grass
  2. straw
  3. draft
  4. manuscript
  5. draft (of a document)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • careless
  • rough

Measure word 棵 kē or 撮 zuǒ · 一棵草 yì kē cǎo

How to say 草

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale草cǎo3rd tone, dipping

草 in a sentence

  1. 羊吃草。

    Yáng chī cǎo.

    Sheep eat grass.

    Sentence #8854251 from Tatoeba

  2. 我听说英国的草在冬天也还是绿的。

    Wǒ tīngshuō Yīngguó de cǎo zài dōngtiān yě háishi lǜ de.

    I hear the grass in England stays green even in winter.

    Sentence #663263 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 不要走在草地上。

    Búyào zǒu zài cǎodì shàng.

    Keep off the grass.

    Sentence #766952 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 草 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 草 (cǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
草cǎograss
  • 艹grass form of 艸 · cǎoMeaning part
  • 早early · zǎoSound part

艹 hints at the meaning (grass); 早 (zǎo) hints at the sound. Compare it with cǎo.

How to write 草

草 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 草

Words with 草

草地cǎodì · lawn起草qǐcǎo · to draft草率cǎoshuài · careless草案cǎo'àn · draft (of a law or plan)

More words: Nature, Animals & Weather

动物dòngwù · animal刮风guāfēng · windy环境huánjìng · environment马mǎ · horse叶子yèzi · leaf云yún · cloud植物zhíwù · plant自然zìrán · nature

FAQs

草 (cǎo) means “grass” or “straw”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it cǎo: cǎo with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 草 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Use 棵 (kē) or 撮 (zuǒ). For example, one grass is 一棵草 (yì kē cǎo).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type cao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 草 from the suggestions. Typing cao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
草 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.