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扫

掃
sǎo / sào
verb HSK 4 #4,782

Meanings

  1. 1 to sweep (with a broom or brush)
  2. 2 to sweep away; to wipe out; to get rid of
  3. 3 to sweep over; to scan (eyes, a beam, a code)

Examples

HSK 3
请把地扫一下。
Qǐng bǎ dì sǎo yīxià.
Please sweep the floor.
HSK 3
她每天早上扫院子。
Tā měitiān zǎoshang sǎo yuànzi.
She sweeps the yard every morning.
HSK 5
扫一下二维码。
Sǎo yīxià èrwéimǎ.
Scan the QR code.

Tips

usage
Three live senses to know: (1) physical sweep - 扫地, 打扫, 大扫除; (2) figurative wipe-out - 扫黄 (crack down on porn), 扫毒 (anti-drug ops), 一扫而光; (3) modern scan - 扫码 (scan a QR code), 扫脸 (facial-recognition scan), 扫描 (scan / scanner). 扫码 is essential daily vocabulary in mainland China - you'll see and hear it everywhere from restaurant menus to street vendors.
mistakes
扫 has a second reading 扫 for the noun "broom" itself: 扫帚 and 扫把. All verb senses (to sweep, to scan, to wipe out, to crack down on) stay sǎo. Note that 扫兴 (disappointing) keeps the third tone - it's the verbal "sweep away one's mood," not the broom noun.

Components

radical
扌 shǒu
hand (radical)
Left hand radical - the side-stacking variant of 手. Sweeping is a hand-and-arm action, dragging a broom across the floor. The radical also covers the modern figurative sense 'to scan' (扫码 scan a QR code) - a hand passing over a surface. Family: 抹 (wipe), 拭 (wipe), 拂 (brush).
semantic
彐 jì
pig snout; (here) hand grip
Right 彐 - in this position a stylised hand gripping the broom-handle (simplified from traditional 掃, where the right side was the heavier 帚 'broom'). The 1956 reform cut 帚 down to just this 3-stroke top. Read it as the gripping hand atop the broom rather than the literal 'pig snout' Kangxi reading of 彐.

Stroke Order

扫 sǎo