噪 (zào): to make a cacophonous noise

Meanings

1 to make a cacophonous noise
2 (of birds or insects) to chirp noisily
3 noisy

Characters

噪

zào

to make a clamor / cacophonous noise

Examples

树上的蝉一直在噪，令人心烦。

Shùshàng de chán yīzhí zài zào, lìngrén xīnfán.

The cicadas in the tree kept chirping noisily, making people restless.

外面人声嘈噪，根本睡不着。

Wàimiàn rénshēng cáo zào, gēnběn shuì bù zháo.

The noise of voices outside was so cacophonous that sleep was impossible.

Tips

usage

噪 is mainly found as a bound form in compounds: 噪音 (noise/static), 嘈噪 (clamorous), 噪声 (noise pollution). As a standalone verb it is literary.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

Left mouth radical — pictograph of an open mouth, the indexing element. Marks 噪 as a noise word: clamour, racket, the chatter of many voices or the chirp of insects (蝉噪 cicadas droning). Same family as 喊 shout, 叫 call, 哄 uproar — the loud-mouth cluster.

phonetic

喿 zào

chirping of many birds (here phonetic)

Right 喿 supplies the sound directly: zào → zào. Beautiful semantic flavour — 喿 itself is three mouths piled on a tree (三口 over 木), a picture of birds flocking and chattering at once. The mouth radical on the left amplifies the already-noisy graph. Family: 操, 燥, 躁 — all busy-and-noisy.