HSK 6 · Body

消毒 xiāodú “to disinfect” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 消毒 means

  1. to disinfect
  2. to sterilise

How to say 消毒

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale消xiāo1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale毒dú2nd tone, rising

消毒 in a sentence

  1. 雅尼刚刚对他的挤奶桶进行了消毒。

    Yǎní gānggāng duì tā de jǐnǎi tǒng jìnxíng le xiāodú.

    Yanni has just sterilised his milking bucket.

    Sentence #13549577 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 消毒 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 消 (xiāo) with each of its parts in a different colour
消xiāoto diminish; to subside
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 肖to resemble · xiàoSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 肖 (xiào) hints at the sound. Compare it with xiāo.

The character 毒 (dú) with each of its parts in a different colour
毒dúpoison
  • 龶part of the characterMeaning part
  • 母mother · mǔSound part

How to write 消毒

消 10 strokes · 毒 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 消毒

Words with 消

Words with 毒

More words: People, Body & Health

FAQs

消毒 (xiāodú) means “to disinfect” or “to sterilise”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it xiāodú: xiāo with a 1st tone, then dú with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 消毒 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xiaodu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 消毒 from the suggestions. Typing xiaodu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
消毒 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.