HSK 5 · Body

腰 yāo “waist” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 腰 means

  1. waist
  2. lower back
  3. the waist and lower back
  4. (bound form) kidney of an animal (as food)
  5. the waist of trousers or a skirt
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • (metonym) money pouch
  • pocket
  • (bound form) the middle section of an upright object (mountain, bottle etc)

How to say 腰

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale腰yāo1st tone, high and level

腰 in a sentence

  1. 我腰疼，不能打网球。

    Wǒ yāo téng, bù néng dǎ wǎngqiú.

    My lower back hurts, so I can’t play tennis.

    Sentence #7767725 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他从腰部到膝盖都湿了。

    Tā cóng yāobù dào xīgài dōu shī le.

    He got wet from the waist down to the knees.

    Sentence #786143 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 猫弓起背，伸了个懒腰。

    Māo gōngqǐ bèi, shēn le ge lǎnyāo.

    The cat arched its back and had a good stretch.

    Sentence #818812 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 腰 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 腰 (yāo) with each of its parts in a different colour
腰yāothe waist and lower back
  • ⺼meat form of 肉 · ròuMeaning part
  • 要essential · yāoSound part

⺼ hints at the meaning (meat); 要 (yāo) hints at the sound. Compare it with yāo.

How to write 腰

腰 13 strokes

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

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

Words related to 腰

More words: People, Body & Health

胸xiōng · chest血xuè · blood牙齿yáchǐ · tooth痒yǎng · to itch晕yūn · dizzy着凉zháoliáng · to catch a cold诊断zhěnduàn · to diagnose治疗zhìliáo · to treat (an illness)

FAQs

腰 (yāo) means “waist” or “lower back”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it yāo: yāo with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 腰 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type yao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 腰 from the suggestions. Typing yao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
腰 is an HSK 5 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.