ō
interjection #149

Meanings

  1. 1 oh
  2. 2 ah; I see

Examples

HSK 1
Ō, wǒ míngbái le.
Oh, I understand now.
HSK 5
Ō, yuánláirúcǐ.
Oh, so that's how it is.

Tips

usage
expresses sudden understanding or realization. Compare with (ó/ò) which is more casual, and which is more exclamatory.

Components

radical
kǒu
mouth
Left mouth radical - marks as a vocal sound, an interjection said aloud. Like the realisation-interjections , , , , the mouth radical signals 'this is something exclaimed', not a thing or action.
phonetic
ào
deep; profound (here phonetic)
Right component supplies the sound - ào shares the back-vowel rime with ō, a near-perfect borrowing. The 'profound, mysterious' sense of contributes nothing semantically; this is a pure sound-loan compound that exists only to write the realisation interjection.

Stroke Order

ō