小

xiǎo
HSK 1
#83 most
frequent character
small, tiny, few, young
adjective

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

小 uses three little strokes to stand for 'small'. From there the meaning grew to 'little' and 'young'.

Drawn as: three little strokes

小 as a component in other characters

meaning4 characters
孙尖尘尕
sound4 characters
少肖雀県
picture5 characters
少雀尜㣎尗
empty1 character
尉

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Example Sentences

这个苹果很小。
zhègè píngguǒ hěnxiǎo 。
This apple is very small.
她有一个小狗。
tā yǒu yígè xiǎogǒu 。
She has a small dog.
我家有一个小花园。
wǒjiā yǒu yígè xiǎo huāyuán 。
My home has a small garden.

Words with similar meanings

微小wēixiǎo
microscopic
more formal and refers to something extremely small, almost too small to see.
小型xiǎoxíng
miniature
implies something is smaller in size, often used to describe models or scaled-down versions.

Homophones

晓xiǎo
dawn, daybreak, to know, to let sb know

Words Starting With 小

小姐xiǎo jie
"young lady; miss
小时xiǎo shí
hour
小心xiǎo xīn
to be careful; to take care
小说xiǎo shuō
"novel; fiction
小伙子xiǎo huǒ zi
lad; young fellow; youngster

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Public Lists with 小

HSK 1
All words for the HSK 1 test
Common Adjectives
Descriptive words for size, quality, temperature, mood, and more.