生肖

生肖 shēngxiào

One of the twelve animals symbolic of the earthly branches; animal from the Chinese zodiac^†

生肖 in a sentence HSK 6 shengxiao

What 生肖 means

One of the twelve animals symbolic of the earthly branches^†
animal from the Chinese zodiac^†

† Our own dictionary has no entry for 生肖, so these meanings are adapted from CC-CEDICT, published by MDBG and its contributors and based on CEDICT © 1997, 1998 Paul Andrew Denisowski, and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Recognise a piece of 生肖 but not the character it belongs to? Pick the parts in the component character finder and it will name the character for you — free for every character, with nothing to sign in to.

Character by character

生肖 is written with 2 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

生

shēng

Life (give birth - be born - grow)

肖

xiào

Resemble (similar)

Words that share a character with 生肖

How to write 生肖

Stroke order is not decoration — it is what makes handwriting legible and what dictionary lookup by stroke count depends on.

Practise 生肖 on printable 田字格 sheets, trace it in the writing practice tool, or watch any other character in the Stroke Order Animator.

生肖 in a sentence

十二生肖是中国传统文化的一部分。

Shí'èr shēngxiào shì Zhōngguó chuántǒng wénhuà de yí bùfen.

The twelve zodiac animals are a part of traditional Chinese culture.

邮局每年都发行生肖邮票。

Yóujú měi nián dōu fāxíng shēngxiào yóupiào.

The post office issues zodiac-animal stamps every year.

Every sentence on this site that uses 生肖 is collected on the 生肖 sentence page. Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.

Sounds the same as 生肖

These are also written shengxiao without tone marks. Tones and context are what keep them apart — which is why the tone is part of the word, not an accent on it.

生效 shēngxiào

Train the difference in the Tone Trainer or the Similar Sounds Quiz.

Questions about 生肖

What does 生肖 mean in English?

生肖 is pronounced shēngxiào and means One of the twelve animals symbolic of the earthly branches, animal from the Chinese zodiac †.

How do you pronounce 生肖?

生肖 is shēngxiào in pinyin — written shengxiao without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 生肖?

生肖 is written with 2 characters: 生 (shēng) Life (give birth - be born - grow), 肖 (xiào) Resemble (similar). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

Is 生肖 an HSK word?

Yes — 生肖 is on the official HSK 6 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 6 page.

Studied around the same time

生理 shēnglǐ 生疏 shēngshū 生态 shēngtài 生物 shēngwù 生效 shēngxiào 生锈 shēngxiù 生育 shēngyù 声明 shēngmíng

Keep going

Translate a whole sentence containing 生肖 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 6, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.

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