What does 校 mean in Chinese?

校 is a Chinese character with the radical 木.

How do you write 校?

校 is written with 10 strokes, starting from the 木 (tree) radical and following standard Chinese stroke order (top to bottom, left to right). See the interactive stroke-order tool for the full animation.

What is the radical of 校?

The radical of 校 is 木 (tree, Kangxi radical #75). Other common HSK characters using the same radical include 本, 来, 机, 果.

How many strokes does 校 have?

The Chinese character 校 has 10 strokes.

What HSK level is 校?

On the new HSK exam syllabus, 校 is a character to recognise at HSK 1.

校: Chinese Character Details

校

HSK 1 character 10 strokes Radical: 木 (tree)

Quick Answer

校 is a Chinese character with 10 strokes, radical 木 (tree), HSK 1 on the new exam.

Full dictionary entry for 校 →Animated stroke-order for 校 →

Etymology

Oracle-bone origin

校 does not appear in oracle bone script in its current form. It is a phono-semantic compound built from 木 (wood) as the semantic radical and 交 (jiāo, meaning crossed or intersecting) as the phonetic, with 交 itself depicting a person with legs crossed. The earliest attested uses in bronze and seal script show the wood-plus-crossed-legs structure, originally naming a wooden implement with crossed parts.

Form evolution

In seal script 校 shows 木 on the left and a clear 交 on the right, with the crossed-legs figure still visible at the bottom of 交. Clerical script flattened the curves of both components into straight strokes, and standard script fixed the left 木 into its narrow radical form. The character has been written essentially the same way since the Han dynasty.

How the meaning evolved

The original meaning was a wooden cangue or fetter (two crossed timbers locked around a prisoner's neck), then extended to any wooden frame or enclosure, including fenced corrals for horses. From military training grounds inside such enclosures the meaning shifted to the drilling and comparing of texts, giving the verb 'to collate' (jiào), and from drill grounds to the modern noun 'school' (xiào). Both readings are still in active use.

Cultural note

The two readings split neatly: xiào covers school words like 学校 (school) and 校长 (principal), while jiào covers textual work like 校对 (to proofread) and 校正 (to correct). Learners often assume 校 is always xiào, but 校对 is one of the most common words in publishing.

Mnemonic

A wooden building where paths cross — school

Decomposition

校=木radical+交component

Breaking a character into its components makes it far easier to recall. Each component above links to its own detail page.

Basic info

Stroke count	10 strokes
Radical	木 (#75: tree)
New HSK exam	Recognise at HSK 1
Frequency	#1031 most common

Example sentences

学校离我家很近。
Xuéxiào lí wǒ jiā hěn jìn.
The school is very close to my home.
From 学校 (HSK 1)
校长很严格。
Xiàozhǎng hěn yángé.
The principal is very strict.
From 校长 (HSK 3)