Chinese Character Wiki
肖

xiào, xiāo

look like

Original meaning: 

decrease, disappear

Depicts the moon (月) getting smaller (小) and disappearing as part of the lunar cycle. Based on the original meaning "decrease, disappear", now written as 消. The meaning later shifted to "resemble; similar".

Components
小 sound,meaning component

小  Sound Meaning component

xiǎo

  

small

月 meaning component

月  Meaning component

yuè

  

moon

Evolution

肖 Bronze script Late Warring States (~250 BC)

Bronze script

Late Warring States (~250 BC)
肖 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
肖 Clerical script Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)

Clerical script

Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)
肖 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

肖  

xiào

look like, resemble, be like; similar; resembling; to resemble; to be like

肖  

Xiāo

surname Xiao; Taiwan pr. [Xiào]

Most common words with 肖
Freq.
Word
Meaning

肖恩

Sean, Shaun or Shawn (name)

肖

similar

肖像

likeness

生肖

animal from the Chinese zodiac

肖邦

Frederic Chopin or Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin (1810-1849), Polish pianist and composer

Component uses

Meaning component in 2 characters (0 verified)

俏 霄

Sound component in 25 characters (4 verified)

消 銷 销 稍 趙 悄 削 哨 屑 梢 俏 峭 鞘 硝 霄 宵 逍 捎 誚 诮 艄 魈 筲 绡 蛸

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[s]ew

sjew

xiāo

disappear

*[s]ew-s

sjewH

xiào

resemble


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 4.0686% of movies

1874th most common character in movies

2019th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

7

Unicode

U+8096

Shuowen

“肖，骨肉相似也。从肉，小聲。不似其先故曰不肖也。”


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