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刨

páo
#3,615 most
frequent character
to excavate
verb

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

刨 has 刂 knife as the meaning part and 包 bāo as a sound part whose tone differs. It first meant to pare or whittle. That grew to planing wood and shaving off. Read páo, it means to dig.

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Example Sentences

他用铲子刨土。
tāyòng chǎnzǐ páo tǔ 。
He uses a shovel to excavate the soil.
工人们在工地上刨坑。
gōng rénmén zài gōngdì shàng páo kēng 。
The workers are excavating a pit at the construction site.
这个地方需要刨出更多的石头。
zhègè dìfāng xūyào páo chū gēngduō de shítou 。
This area needs to excavate more stones.

Same Characters, Different Readings

刨bào
carpenter's plane, to plane (woodwork)
刨bào
variant of 刨[bao4]

Words with similar meanings

挖wā
to dig
挖 refers to digging in a general sense, which can be more colloquial compared to 刨.
开挖kāiwā
to commence excavation
开挖 is often used in formal contexts, indicating the beginning of an excavation process.

Homophones

炮páo
to prepare herbal medicine by roasting or parching (in a pan)
跑páo
(of an animal) to paw (the ground)

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