qiào
noun #17,417

Meanings

  1. 1 hole; opening; orifice (of the human body)
  2. 2 (fig.) key (to the solution of a problem)

Examples

Tā yīqiàobùtōng.
He doesn't understand a thing.
Nǐ děi zhǎodào qiàomén cái xíng.
You need to find the knack to make it work.

Tips

memory
(qī qiào) refers to the 7 openings in the head: 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostrils, 1 mouth. The idiom 一窍不通 means 'not even one opening is clear' — totally clueless.

Components

radical
xué
cave; hole
Top cave radical — a roof shape above a stylized cavity, picturing a cave dwelling. The indexing radical, anchors in the family of opening/hole chars: 穿 pierce, empty, sudden / protrude, window, investigate. Marks as an aperture — both literal body orifices ( the seven orifices) and the figurative 'opening / knack' in 诀窍 know-how.
phonetic
qiǎo
skillful; clever
Bottom supplies the sound — qiǎo shifting to qiào with tone change. Also adds a faint semantic flavor: a clever opening / a knack — fitting the modern figurative sense of (诀窍 is the key trick to doing something well). Same phonetic family: rotten, trowel. Simplified from traditional , which had the much busier phonetic on the bottom.

Stroke Order

qiào