跳 (tiào): to jump; to hop; to leap

Meanings

1 to jump; to hop; to leap
2 to bounce; to skip
3 to beat (of heart)

Characters

跳

tiào

to jump; to leap

Contains the foot radical 足, indicating a physical action done with the feet.

Examples

他跳了起来。

Tā tiào le qǐlái.

He jumped up.

小孩在跳。

Xiǎohái zài tiào.

The child is jumping.

我的心跳得很快。

Wǒ de xīntiào de hěnkuài.

My heart is beating fast.

Tips

usage

跳 combines with many words: 跳舞 (dance), 跳绳 (jump rope), 跳远 (long jump), 跳高 (high jump), 心跳 (heartbeat).

Components

radical

足 zú

foot (left-side radical)

Left foot radical (Kangxi #157) — the seven-stroke pictograph of a leg-and-foot in compressed left-side form (the bottom 止 'foot' is squashed). Anchors 跳 in the moving-on-feet family alongside 跑 (run), 踢 (kick), 踩 (step on), 跌 (stumble), 蹲 (squat), 跨 (stride). Tells the reader: this character names something the foot does — here, leaving the ground.

phonetic

兆 zhào

omen; trillion (phonetic)

Right phonetic 兆 — supplies the sound (zhào drifted to tiào, regular palatalisation). Originally a pictograph of cracks splitting on a heated turtle plastron during divination — hence both 'omen' and 'trillion' (many cracks). Faintly semantic: cracks splitting outward mirror feet leaving the ground in a leap. Family 桃, 逃, 挑, 眺 — 逃/跳 are closest siblings.