Kilo Lingo

(kǎo) - to test, to examine; to ponder in Mandarin

kǎo

Traditional: 考

Line drawing of 考
Coloured illustration of 考
#5282 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

to test, to examine; to ponder

Word origin

Originally a variant of 老 (lǎo, old) and once meaning an aged parent, the character was later borrowed for its sound to write the senses of to test and to ponder.

Origin
phono-semantic
Root
derived from 老 (lǎo, old), borrowed for sound

Stroke order

Stroke order for 考

Examples

Let me think it over.

I am considering this question.

He is preparing for the exam.

He has an exam next week.

This exam really stumped me.

考 (kǎo) covers testing and pondering; it forms 考虑 (kǎolǜ), to consider, and 考试 (kǎoshì), exam.

Appears in 2 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 考.

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This word is part of lesson 106.