jiāo
noun #12,850

Meanings

  1. 1 a tumble
  2. 2 a fall

Examples

Tā shuāi le yī jiāo.
He took a tumble.
Xiǎoháizi xué zǒulù zǒnghuì diē jiāo.
Children always take falls when learning to walk.

Tips

usage
Almost always appears in fixed expressions: 摔跤 (to fall/to wrestle), (to stumble and fall). Rarely used alone.

Components

radical
foot
Left foot radical, indexing with every other character about walking, kicking, and slipping. The -on- silhouette pictures the ankle joint sitting above the planted foot — the body part most directly involved in losing your balance. Same family: run, jump, kick, stumble.
phonetic
jiāo
to cross; intersect
Right side supplies the sound directly: jiāo. Same phonetic powers glue, suburb, compare, school, dumpling. A faint semantic echo helps too — depicts crossed legs, and a tumble is exactly what happens when your legs cross unexpectedly mid-stride.

Stroke Order

jiāo