钊 (zhāo): to encourage; to urge on

Meanings

1 to encourage; to urge on
2 (archaic) to file down; to cut

Characters

钊

zhāo

to encourage

Examples

HSK 7-9

李大钊是中国共产党的早期创始人之一。

Lǐ Dàzhāo shì Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng de zǎoqī chuàngshǐrén zhīyī.

Li Dazhao was one of the early founders of the Communist Party of China.

HSK 7-9

钊字有勉励之意，常用于人名。

Zhāo zì yǒu miǎnlì zhī yì, cháng yòngyú rénmíng.

The character zhao means to encourage, and is often used in given names.

Tips

culture

Best known from 李大钊, a founding figure of the Chinese Communist Party. The word means 'to encourage', which is why it is a popular given-name character.

Components

radical

钅 jīn

metal

Left-side metal radical, the side form of 金. The original sense was filing or cutting metal; the modern 'encourage' meaning grew out of that idea of sharpening.

semantic

刂 dāo

knife

Right-side knife radical, the upright side form of 刀. Knife plus metal pictures the act of filing metal down - the character's earliest meaning.