Chinese Character Wiki
膏

gāo, gào

grease, paste

Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and 高 represents the sound.

Components
高 sound component

高  Sound component

gāo

  

high

⺼ meaning component

⺼  Meaning component

ròu

  

meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of 肉.

Evolution

膏 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
膏 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
膏 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
膏 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

膏  

gāo

grease, fat; paste, ointment; ointment; paste; CL:帖[tiě]

膏  

gào

to moisten; to grease; to apply (cream, ointment); to dip a brush in ink

Most common words with 膏
Freq.
Word
Meaning

膏

paste

牙膏

toothpaste

唇膏

lip balm

石膏

plaster

药膏

ointment

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*Cə.kˤaw

kaw

gāo

lard (n.)

*[k]ˤaw-s

kawH

gāo

smear with lard (v.)


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 7.1440% of movies

2132nd most common character in movies

2673rd most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

14

Unicode

U+818F

Shuowen

“膏，肥也。从肉，高聲。”


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