What does 笑 mean in Chinese?

笑 (xiào) means "to laugh" in Chinese. The new HSK exam expects you to recognise it at HSK 2.

How do you write 笑?

笑 is written with 10 strokes, starting from the 竹 (bamboo) 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 笑?

The radical of 笑 is 竹 (bamboo, Kangxi radical #118). Other common HSK characters using the same radical include 等, 答, 算, 竹.

How many strokes does 笑 have?

The Chinese character 笑 has 10 strokes.

What HSK level is 笑?

On the new HSK exam syllabus, 笑 is a character to recognise at HSK 2.

笑 (xiào): Meaning, Stroke Order, Radical & Examples

笑

xiào

to laugh

HSK 2 character 10 strokes Radical: 竹 (bamboo)

Quick Answer

笑 (xiào) means "to laugh" with 10 strokes, radical 竹 (bamboo), HSK 2 on the new exam.

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

Pronunciation

xiào

Meaning

Primary: to laugh

Etymology

Oracle-bone origin

笑 is not attested in oracle bone script. The earliest forms appear in seal script as a phono-semantic compound: 竹 (bamboo) on top over 夭 (a bending human figure) below. The Shuowen Jiezi treats 竹 as semantic, though why bamboo signals laughter is debated; one traditional reading is that laughing makes a person bend like bamboo in the wind.

Form evolution

The seal form shows clear 竹 above 夭. In clerical script the bamboo radical was regularised to the familiar 竹 top (⺮), and 夭 below kept its shape of a figure with tilted head. Modern 笑 has changed little since the clerical standardisation, with the bottom component sometimes miscopied as 天 but canonically written 夭.

How the meaning evolved

The core meaning 'to laugh, to smile' has been stable since the earliest attestations. Extended senses developed early: 笑 can mean to mock or ridicule (嘲笑, 笑话 as a joke or as an object of ridicule), and in poetic usage it describes flowers 'smiling' when they bloom. The negative 'laugh at' sense is as old as the positive one.

Cultural note

The idiom 五十步笑百步 ('he who retreats fifty paces laughs at one who retreats a hundred'), from the Mencius, is a common classical reference students meet early. The 夭 component is the same one that appears in 妖 and 沃, all originally depicting a person with head tilted sideways.

Mnemonic

Bamboo bending like a young person — to laugh

Decomposition

笑=竹radical+夭component

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

Basic info

Pinyin	xiào
Meanings	to laugh
Stroke count	10 strokes
Radical	竹 (#118: bamboo)
New HSK exam	Recognise at HSK 2
Frequency	#482 most common

Example sentences

他笑了。
Tā xiào le.
He laughed.
From 笑 (HSK 2)
他讲了一个笑话。
Tā jiǎng le yí gè xiàohua.
He told a joke.
From 笑话 (HSK 4)
我只是开玩笑，别当真。
Wǒ zhǐshì kāiwánxiào, bié dāngzhēn.
I'm just joking, don't take it seriously.
From 开玩笑 (HSK 4)

Words containing 笑

Word	Pinyin	Meaning	HSK
笑	xiào	to laugh	HSK 2
开玩笑	kāiwánxiào	Make fun of	HSK 4
笑话	xiàohua	joke	HSK 4
微笑	wēixiào	Smile	HSK 5
嘲笑	cháoxiào	to ridicule, to laugh at	HSK 6