The character 小 (xiǎo): small

On a pale wooden tea tray, in front of an open lattice window looking onto a bamboo grove, a large round celadon green teapot stands with three small cream cups beside it, steam rising from each. At the right, on the same tray, the character 小 in very dark brown: an upright stem ending in a hook to the left, with two short slanting strokes set well clear of it, one on either side.

Pronunciation: xiǎo
Strokes: 3
Level: HSK1
Radical: 小

What it means

small; tiny; few; young

Where its shape comes from

Xu Shen analyses it as a compound: the element 八 (bā), which divides, with a stroke down the middle. The oracle bone inscriptions, which he never saw, show something else again: three small dots in a row, with no shaft and no hook. Small things, grains or specks of dust. The hooked shaft settles in only later, so the Shuowen analysis is working on a form that had already been regularised. That happens often, and it is worth knowing as you read.

Source: Xu Shen, Shuowen Jiezi (121 CE); the Chinese University of Hong Kong character database.

How it used to be written

Oracle bone script 商
Clerical script 東漢
See all 11 forms

Forms, sources and dates: the 字形演變 database of 小學堂, Academia Sinica, public domain (CC0).

A way to remember it

A hooked shaft down the middle, with two little marks leaning away from it, one on each side. They do not touch it: that gap is what makes the character, and it is the first thing you lose once you start writing quickly.

This is a memory aid, not the origin of the character.

Words it appears in

小时 xiǎo shí · HSK1 hour; CL:個|个[ge4]
小学 xiǎo xué · HSK1 elementary school; primary school
小学生 xiǎo xué shēng · HSK1 primary school student; schoolchild; CL:個|个[ge4],名[ming2]; (fig.) beginner
小朋友 xiǎo péng yǒu · HSK1 child; kid (used to refer to a child, or by an adult to address a child, or, in Taiwan, to refer to sb's own child); CL:個|个[ge4]
从小 cóng xiǎo · HSK2 from childhood; from a young age
小时候 xiǎo shí hou · HSK2 in one's childhood

See the 38 HSK words built on 小, grouped by level.

Writing it

See the stroke order of 小, animated stroke by stroke.