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扫

掃
sào / sǎo
noun #4,782

Meanings

  1. 1 (bound form) broom

Examples

把扫帚递给我，我来扫地。
Bǎ sàozhou dì gěi wǒ, wǒ lái sǎodì.
Pass me the broom — I'll sweep the floor.
扫把靠在墙角。
Sàobǎ kào zài qiángjiǎo.
The broom is leaning against the corner.
老一辈说彗星看起来就像一把扫帚扫过天空。
Lǎoyībèi shuō huìxīng kànqǐlái jiùxiàng yī bǎ sàozhou sǎoguò tiānkōng.
Old folk say a comet looks like a broom-star sweeping across the sky.

Tips

usage
The sào reading is bound — you'll only see it inside compounds that name the physical broom object: 扫帚 and 扫把 (both "broom," regional preference varies). The action of using a broom ("to sweep") flips back to sǎo — so you can have the third-tone verb sweep the fourth-tone-noun broom in the same sentence: 用扫帚扫地.
memory
Memory hook: the noun (the broom object, sào) has a falling tone — heavy, like a broom standing in the corner. The verb (sweeping it across the floor, sǎo) dips and rises — exactly the back-and-forth motion of sweeping.

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 sào