HSK 5 · Adjectives
粗糙 cūcāo “rough” in Chinese
Same in Traditional
What 粗糙 means
- rough
- coarse
- crude
- gruff
How to say 粗糙
粗cū1st tone, high and level
糙cāo1st tone, high and level
粗糙 in a sentence
How 粗糙 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.

粗cūwide; thick
- 米rice · mǐMeaning part
- 且moreover · qiěSound part
米 hints at the meaning (rice); 且 (qiě) hints at the sound. Compare it with cū.

糙cāorough
- 米rice · mǐMeaning part
- 造to build · zàoSound part
米 hints at the meaning (rice); 造 (zào) hints at the sound. Compare it with cāo.
How to write 粗糙
粗 11 strokes · 糙 16 strokes
Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

Words related to 粗糙
Words with 粗
More words: Adjectives
FAQs
粗糙 (cūcāo) means “rough” or “coarse”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it cūcāo: cū with a 1st tone, then cāo with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 粗糙 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type cucao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 粗糙 from the suggestions. Typing cucao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
粗糙 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.
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.