The Chinese character 高

And its component form

gāo

  1. high
  2. tall
  3. above average
  4. loud

高 is both a character and a character component


Everything you need to know about the Chinese character component 高 gao in an easily downloadable and sharable image

can be used as a phonetic component in a Chinese character. You’ll find the Chinese character component 高 in characters and words pronounced “gao”.

These characters all contain 高 and sound like “gao”:

gǎo

to do; to make; to set up

稿

gǎo

manuscript; draft; stalk of grain

gǎo

a pick

gǎo

plain white silk

Characters that sound like “ao” with the Chinese character component 高

The Chinese language is over 5000 years old, so, unsurprisingly, some characters’ pronunciations have evolved a little over time. Chinese characters containing 高 will therefore sometimes have a pronunciation close to the sound 高 but not quite the same.

When used as a character component, 高 can also be found in words that don’t sound like “gao” but have a very close pronunciation. All these words share the “-ao” sound with a different inital:

Exceptions

You can find the character component 高 in these words that share the “-ao” sound:

sào: high; imposing

 qiāo: to squat; to hit; to strike

 kào: to give a bonus to

You’ll also find the meaning component 高 in many other Chinese characters. Browse the full list here.

All 80,000+ Chinese characters share the same character components. Chinese character components are therefore essential for Chinese learners: they are the building blocks of Chinese. Chinese character components help tremendously with understanding a character: they provide information on its meaning or on its pronunciation. In short, knowing character components will help you analyse, learn and remember each Chinese character much better.

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NinchaneseChinese Character Component 高 gao (phonetic)