嚎 (háo): to howl

Meanings

1 to howl
2 to bawl
3 to wail loudly

Characters

嚎

háo

to howl; to wail

Examples

HSK 5

孩子摔倒后嚎啕大哭。

Háizi shuāidǎo hòu háotáo-dàkū.

The child fell and burst into loud wailing.

HSK 7-9

狼在月光下嚎叫。

Láng zài yuèguāng xià háojiào.

The wolf howled in the moonlight.

Tips

usage

嚎 implies loud, unrestrained crying or howling. Common compounds: 嚎叫 (háojiào, to howl), 嚎啕 (háotáo, to wail). It can describe both animals howling and humans bawling.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

口 is the indexing mouth radical, marking 嚎 as a vocal-emission verb - here, the long howl of grief or a wolf's drawn-out cry (嚎啕大哭, 狼嚎). Sibling mouth-radical chars 哭 (weep), 嚷 (shout), 嗥 (yelp), 喊 (yell) all share the mouth-on-the-left + sound-mimicking-phonetic pattern.

phonetic

豪 háo

grand; bold; fine hair

豪 (háo) supplies the sound exactly - same initial, same rime, same tone. Same phonetic also drives 壕 (moat) and 濠 (river-name). The grand-and-stirring flavour of 豪 colours 嚎 with a sense of scale: this is not a small whimper but a great booming cry that rolls outward.