xiāo
adjective #24,567

Meanings

  1. 1 clamorous
  2. 2 noisy
  3. 3 arrogant
  4. 4 presumptuous

Examples

HSK 7-9
Shìjǐng xuānxiāo, lìngrén nányǐ rùmián.
The clamor of the market made it hard to fall asleep.
HSK 7-9
Qìyàn xiāozhāng de guānyuán zuìzhōng shòudào le fǎlǜ de zhìcái.
The arrogant official was eventually punished by law.

Tips

register
is a classical/literary character rarely used alone in modern Chinese. It appears in set phrases: 喧嚣 (clamor/hubbub), 嚣张 (arrogant/rampant), 尘嚣 (worldly clamor).

Components

radical
kǒu
mouth
Top-left - the first of four mouths in this char. Multiple mouths together evoke a babble of voices, the literal scene of clamour. This corner mouth pairs with the top-right to flank the head in the middle.
semantic
kǒu
mouth
Top-right mirrors the top-left mouth, completing the upper pair. Two mouths shouting on either side of the head below paint a chaotic, surrounded-by-noise picture - the core image of 's clamour and din.
semantic
head; page
in the middle is the original head pictograph. Surrounded above and below by four shouting mouths, it gives the literal target - a head besieged by noise from every side. This positioning is what stretches the meaning to arrogance and presumption.
semantic
kǒu
mouth
Bottom-left - third mouth, mirroring the top arrangement below the head. Together with its bottom-right twin, it completes the four-corner siege of voices around , the visual signature that gives its overwhelming-noise meaning.
semantic
kǒu
mouth
Bottom-right closes the four-mouth circle around the head. The full set of four chars is also the underlying structure of 's traditional form - which is even more elaborate, with four plus the head.

Stroke Order

xiāo