HSK 4 · Objects

笑话 xiàohua “joke” in Chinese

Traditional 笑話

What 笑话 means

  1. joke
  2. jest
  3. to laugh at
  4. to mock
  5. ridiculous
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • absurd

How to say 笑话

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale笑xiào4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own话huaneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

笑话 in a sentence

  1. 他特别爱讲笑话。

    Tā tèbié ài jiǎng xiàohua.

    He really loves telling jokes.

    Sentence #1790034 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我没弄明白这个笑话。

    Wǒ méi nòng míngbai zhè ge xiàohua.

    I didn’t get the joke.

    Sentence #399391 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你在笑话谁？

    Nǐ zài xiàohua shéi?

    Who are you laughing at?

    Sentence #1324961 from Tatoeba

How 笑话 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
The character 话 (huà) with each of its parts in a different colour
话huàdialectlight in 笑话
  • 讠speech form of 言 · yán
  • 舌tongue · shé

Memory aidSpeech 讠 from the tongue 舌: talk, words.

How to write 笑话

笑 10 strokes · 话 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 笑话

Words with 笑

笑xiào · to laugh开玩笑kāiwánxiào · to play a joke微笑wēixiào · smile嘲笑cháoxiào · to mock讥笑jīxiào · to sneer at

Words with 话

电话diànhuà · telephone打电话dǎ diànhuà · to make a phone call说话shuōhuà · to speak的话dehuà · if (ends a conditional clause)对话duìhuà · dialogue普通话pǔtōnghuà · Mandarin废话fèihuà · nonsense实话shíhuà · truth神话shénhuà · legend话题huàtí · subject (of a talk or conversation)

More words: Everyday Things

条件tiáojiàn · condition文章wénzhāng · article橡皮xiàngpí · rubber效果xiàoguǒ · result信封xìnfēng · envelope信心xìnxīn · confidence性别xìngbié · gender性格xìnggé · nature

FAQs

笑话 (xiàohua) means “joke” or “jest”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it xiàohua: xiào with a 4th tone, then hua with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 笑话 is written 笑話. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xiaohua with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 笑话 from the suggestions. Typing xiaohua into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
笑话 is an HSK 4 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

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.