嘲 (cháo): to mock

Meanings

1 to mock
2 to ridicule
3 to jeer at

Characters

嘲

cháo

to mock; to ridicule

Examples

HSK 3

他被同学嘲，心里很难过。

Tā bèi tóngxué cháo, xīnlǐ hěn nánguò.

He was mocked by his classmates and felt very upset.

HSK 7-9

诗人常被世俗所嘲。

Shīrén cháng bèi shìsú suǒ cháo.

Poets are often ridiculed by the mundane world.

Tips

register

嘲 is a classical or literary form. In modern usage, it typically appears in compounds: 嘲笑 (to mock/laugh at), 嘲弄 (to ridicule), 嘲讽 (to satirize). As a standalone verb it is rare in everyday speech.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

口 is the indexing mouth radical, a square drawing of an open mouth. It marks 嘲 as a speech-act word, alongside 叫 (shout), 吵 (quarrel), 唱 (sing), 讥 (mock). The mouth on the left signals: this verb is something done with the lips - here, mocking or jeering.

phonetic

朝 zhāo

morning; dynasty

朝 (zhāo) supplies the sound - initial preserved, rime drifted slightly with tone shift to second tone (cháo). Same phonetic powers 潮 (tide), 晁 (a surname). No semantic load here - purely the sound-anchor that pins down cháo among the mouth-radical mocking-and-jeering verbs.