皂

zào
#3,081 most
frequent character
soap, black

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

皂 came from 草 cǎo (vegetation); its first stroke 丿 marks it as different. It first meant 'a tree whose fruit gives black dye.' That grew to 'black.' The meaning 'soap' was borrowed for its sound, not from the tree.

皂 as a component in other characters

sound1 character
唣

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Homophones

造zào
make, build, create, produce

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