Kilo Lingo

(yào) - key (first half of "key") in Mandarin

yào

Traditional: 钥

Line drawing of 钥
Coloured illustration of 钥
#5358 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

key (first half of "key")

Word origin

A phono-semantic compound: the metal radical 钅 signals a metal object, while 月 (yuè) on the right supplies the sound, giving the word for a key.

Origin
phono-semantic
Root
钅 (metal radical) + 月 (yuè, phonetic)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 钥

Examples

The key is on the table.

I left the key at home.

This is the room key.

I put the keys on the table.

He lost the key to the room.

钥 (yào) is a bound morpheme that pairs with 匙 (shi) to form 钥匙, the everyday word for key.

Appears in 1 word

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 钥.

Used in

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This word is part of lesson 108.