啕

táo

verb

Meanings

听到噩耗，她嚎啕大哭起来。

Tīngdào èhào, tā háotáo dàkū qǐlái.

Hearing the bad news, she burst out wailing.

孩子号啕大哭，谁也哄不好。

Háizi háotáo dàkū, shuí yě hǒng bù hǎo.

The child was bawling so loudly that no one could comfort him.

usage

啕 is a bound character. It appears only in 嚎啕 (also written 号啕), meaning to cry loudly and uncontrollably, almost always followed by 大哭.

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

The mouth radical, marking 啕 as a vocal sound. Here it is the sound of loud, broken weeping that comes pouring out of the mouth.

phonetic

匋 táo

pottery (phonetic)

Supplies the sound directly: 匋 táo gives 啕 its exact reading táo. The same phonetic sits inside 陶 (táo, pottery).

啕 táo