校 (xiào): school; college (bound form)

Meanings

1 school; college (bound form)
2 field officer (military, bound form)

Characters

校

xiào

school

Examples

HSK 1

我们学校很大。

Wǒmen xuéxiào hěn dà.

Our school is very big.

HSK 3

他每天走路去学校。

Tā měi tiān zǒulù qù xuéxiào.

He walks to school every day.

HSK 4

校长很严格。

Xiàozhǎng hěn yángé.

The principal is very strict.

Tips

usage

Most common in 学校 (school) and the campus-life family: 校长 (principal), 校园 (campus), 校服 (school uniform), 校友 (alumnus), 母校 (alma mater). The military ranks 上校 (colonel), 中校 (lieutenant colonel), 少校 (major) all use the same xiào.

register

Second reading 校 (falling tone) means 'to proofread / collate / calibrate' - a separate verbal sense. It shows up in editorial and engineering compounds: 校对 (proofread), 校正 (correct, calibrate), 校准 (calibrate), 校验 (verify, checksum). Rule of thumb: school-life and military ranks → xiào; comparing or correcting a text or instrument → jiào.

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Left tree radical - indexing radical for 校. Originally 校 meant a wooden enclosure or cangue (the X-shaped wooden frame used to discipline prisoners), then a wooden military camp, then a wooden teaching hall - wood underlies every sense. Same family as 桌 (table), 椅 (chair), 板 (plank). The school-meaning is the modern descendant of 'wooden teaching hall'.

phonetic

交 jiāo

cross; intersect

Right phonetic 交 - supplies the sound (jiāo → xiào, palatal shift; same family as 较, 狡, 咬). Originally pictured a person with crossed legs. The crossing image sneaks back as semantic flavor: 校 also reads jiào meaning 'to check, collate, proofread' - comparing two texts side by side, where they cross.