躁 (zào) · impatient, hot-tempered, restless

Meanings

1 impatient
2 hot-tempered
3 restless

Characters

躁

zào

impatient; restless

Examples

HSK 3

别急躁，慢慢来。

Bié jízào, mànmanlái.

Don't be impatient, take it slowly.

HSK 4

天气太热了，大家都很烦躁。

Tiānqì tài rè le, dàjiā dōu hěn fánzào.

The weather is too hot, everyone is irritable.

Tips

mistakes

Don't confuse 躁 (restless/impatient) with 燥 (dry). They sound identical but have different meanings. 烦躁 = irritable, 干燥 = dry. Mnemonic: 躁 has 足 (foot), restless feet; 燥 has 火 (fire), dry from heat.

usage

Common compounds: 急躁 (impatient), 烦躁 (irritable), 浮躁 (superficial and restless), 狂躁 (manic).

Components

radical

足 zú

foot; leg

Left foot radical - the indexing element, picturing a leg with knee and foot. It puts 躁 in the motion-of-the-feet family alongside 跑 (run), 跳 (jump), 踢 (kick). Here the connection is restless, agitated pacing: feet that cannot stay still, the bodily mark of impatience.

phonetic

喿 zào

chirping of many birds (here phonetic)

Right 喿 supplies the sound zào with no drift, and adds a faint semantic flavour: three mouths over a tree pictures a flock of birds clamouring - exactly the kind of noisy fidgeting that characterises impatience. Same phonetic appears in 噪 (clamour), 操 (handle), 燥 (dry-irritated).