shǎo

Traditional: 少

#1170 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

few, little; to lack

Word origin

A pictograph of small marks, conveying a small amount. It means few or little, and in the third tone reads shǎo.

Origin
pictograph
Root
small marks indicating a small quantity

Stroke order

Stroke order for 少

Examples

He says very little.

Very few people came today.

There is one book missing from the desk.

Drink a little less alcohol.

xuě

It rarely snows here.

少 (shǎo) means few, little, or to lack. In the fourth tone, shào, it means young, as in 少年.

Appears in 3 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 少.

Used in

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This word is part of lesson 24.