Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced xiao

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced xiao, including 小 xiǎo, 笑 xiào, 消 xiāo, 效 xiào, 校 xiào / jiào. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

To say xiao, lead with the forward, palatal x, slide into iao, and place the tone on top — one smooth piece.

Initial x

A light, forward hissing sound.

Final iao

Settle the final iao into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.

Study Tip

Start with the most common characters (小 xiǎo, 笑 xiào, 消 xiāo, 效 xiào, 校 xiào / jiào) and lock in their tones. 12 common characters share the sound xiao, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

xiao turns up here with 3 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.

1st tone

Taking the 1st tone here: 消, 销, 削… (4 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

消xiāoconsume; news; subside; to disappear; to vanish 销xiāoto melt; to do away with; to sell 削xuē / xiāoto scrape; to reduce; to pare (away); to cut (down)萧xiāomournful

3rd tone

Taking the 3rd tone here: 小, 晓 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

小xiǎosmall; tiny; few; young 晓xiǎodawn; to know; to tell (sb sth); dawn

4th tone

Taking the 4th tone here: 笑, 效, 校… (6 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

笑xiàolaugh; smile 效xiàoimitate; effect; efficacy; imitate 校xiào / jiàoproofread; to check; to compare; school 肖xiào / xiāosimilar; resembling; to resemble; to be like 孝xiàofilial 啸xiàoto hiss; to whistle

Common Words With This Sound

Seeing xiao inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.

小时xiǎo shíhour 小姐xiǎo jieyoung lady; miss; (slang) prostitute 小学xiǎo xuéelementary school; primary school 开玩笑kāi wán xiàoto play a joke; to make fun of; to joke 笑话xiào huajoke; jest; to laugh at; to mock 笑话儿xiào hua rerhua form of 笑话消息xiāo xi(piece of) news; information; message 消失xiāo shīto disappear; to fade away 取消qǔ xiāoto cancel; to call off; to revoke; to rescind 效果xiào guǒresult; effect; efficacy; (theater) sound or visual effects

Characters

12 common characters in this group.

Character#1 小 xiǎosmall; tiny; few; youngTraditional: 小 Character#2 笑 xiàolaugh; smileTraditional: 咲 Character#3 消 xiāoconsume; news; subside; to disappear; to vanishTraditional: 消 Character#4 效 xiàoimitate; effect; efficacy; imitateTraditional: 傚 Character#5 校 xiào / jiàoproofread; to check; to compare; schoolTraditional: 校 Character#6 销 xiāoto melt; to do away with; to sellTraditional: 銷 Character#7 晓 xiǎodawn; to know; to tell (sb sth); dawnTraditional: 曉 Character#8 削 xuē / xiāoto scrape; to reduce; to pare (away); to cut (down)Traditional: 削 Character#9 萧 xiāomournfulTraditional: 蕭 Character#10 肖 xiào / xiāosimilar; resembling; to resemble; to be likeTraditional: 肖 Character#11 孝 xiàofilialTraditional: 孝 Character#12 啸 xiàoto hiss; to whistleTraditional: 嘯