cáo
noun HSK 7-9 #8,542

Meanings

  1. 1 trough; groove; slot
  2. 2 manger; feeding trough

Examples

Bǎ yìngbì fàng jìn zhège cáo lǐ.
Put the coin into this slot.
Zhèkuài mùbǎn shàng yǒu yìtiáo cáo.
There's a groove on this wooden board.

Tips

usage
吐槽 (tǔcáo) is hugely popular internet slang meaning 'to roast/complain/mock' — borrowed from Japanese ツッコミ (tsukkomi). It's one of the most common words in Chinese social media. 跳槽 (jump troughs) means 'to switch jobs.'

Components

radical
wood; tree
Four-stroke tree radical on the left, the indexing radical. names a trough or feeding manger, traditionally carved from a hollowed log — pure wood-craft imagery. Groups with bucket, cupboard, chair, table — wooden objects. Modern slang 吐槽 to complain is also built on this char.
phonetic
cáo
company; surname (here phonetic)
Right side supplies the sound — cáo read straight across with no shift. Same phonetic drives grain transport, noisy, grub — all keeping the cao reading. itself is famous as the surname of Three Kingdoms strategist 曹操, a useful visual mnemonic.

Stroke Order

cáo