HSK 2 · Adjectives

高 gāo “tall” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 高 means

  1. tall, high
  2. above average
  3. loud
  4. your (honorific)

How to say 高

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale高gāo1st tone, high and level

高 in a sentence

  1. 你有多高？

    Nǐ yǒu duō gāo?

    How tall are you?

    Sentence #393593 from Tatoeba

  2. 他比他的弟弟高。

    Tā bǐ tā de dìdi gāo.

    He’s taller than his younger brother.

    Sentence #848990 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 她个子很高。

    Tā gèzi hěn gāo.

    She is tall.

    Sentence #8780264 from Tatoeba

How 高 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 高 (gāo) with each of its parts in a different colour
高gāohigh
  • 亠lid · tóu
  • 口mouth · kǒu
  • 冋desert · jiōng

Memory aidDrawn from a tall tower: high, tall.

How to write 高

高 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 高

Words with 高

高兴gāoxìng · happy高中gāozhōng · senior high school提高tígāo · to raise高铁gāotiě · high-speed rail身高shēngāo · (a person’s) height高速公路gāosùgōnglù · motorway高级gāojí · high level高档gāodàng · superior quality崇高chónggāo · lofty高超gāochāo · superb

More words: Adjectives

快乐kuàilè · happy慢màn · slow快kuài · fast长cháng · long远yuǎn · far近jìn · near贵guì · expensive便宜piányi · cheap

FAQs

高 (gāo) means “tall, high” or “above average”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it gāo: gāo with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 高 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type gao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 高 from the suggestions. Typing gao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
高 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.