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苕

tiáo
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 (archaic) Chinese trumpet vine (Campsis grandiflora)
  2. 2 reed-grass flower

Examples

邛有旨苕。
Qióng yǒu zhǐ tiáo.
There is sweet trumpet-vine on the hill.

Tips

history
Not used on its own in modern Chinese. It survives in classical poetry (the 《诗经》 line 苕之华) and as a dialect word for sweet potato in 红苕, read sháo. The phonetic element is 召, shared with 招 and 照.
register
Literary and dialectal only; you meet it in old texts and plant names, not everyday speech.

Components

radical
艹 cǎo
grass; plant
The grass radical 艹 (from 艸) sits on top and marks this as a plant word — the trumpet vine. It groups 苕 with the huge family of botanical characters.
phonetic
召 zhào
summon
Gives the sound. 召 (summon) lends its rime to the tiáo / sháo readings here, the same phonetic seen in 招 and 迢; it adds no meaning.

Stroke Order

苕 tiáo