liáo
noun #38,515

Meanings

  1. 1 official; bureaucrat
  2. 2 colleague; fellow official

Examples

HSK 6
Tā hé tóngliáo xiāngchǔ de hěn hǎo.
He gets along well with his colleagues.
HSK 7-9
Tā zuì kànbùqǐ guānliáo zuòfēng.
He despises bureaucratic airs the most.

Tips

usage
Two related senses. 官僚 means bureaucrat or bureaucracy, often with a critical edge. 同僚 means a colleague, originally a fellow official. In aviation 僚机 is a wingman aircraft.

Components

radical
rén
person (radical form)
Left person radical, the side-form of . It marks as a word about people, here officials and colleagues. Same person family as and .
phonetic
liáo
(phonetic element)
Right element supplies the sound - liáo with no tone shift. It contributes no meaning here; the same phonetic appears in and .

Stroke Order

liáo