奥

Tap the pinyin to hear it

obscure; mysterious

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

Ideographic compound (会意字)

A person 大 discovering a house 宀 full of rice 米

Components 宀米大

of great depth · Heisig RSH #2031

a drop of + helmet + 米 rice + St. Bernard dog

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
克里奥尔语	kè lǐ ào ěr yǔ	creole language
奥里里亚	Ào lǐ lǐ yà	Aurelia, a hypothetical planet
奥马尔	Ào mǎ ěr	Omar (Arabic name)
奥林巴斯	Ào lín bā sī	Olympus, Japanese manufacturer of cameras and optical instruments
科利奥兰纳斯	Kē lì ào lán nà sī	Coriolanus, 1607 tragedy by William Shakespeare 莎士比亞\|莎士比亚
奥尔巴尼	Ào ěr bā ní	Albany, New York
奥地利	Ào dì lì	Austria
里奥斯	Lǐ ào sī	Ríos (name)
奥尔德尼岛	Ào ěr dé ní Dǎo	Alderney (Channel Islands)
奥利安	Ào lì ān	Orion (constellation, loan word); also written 獵戶座\|猎户座
马里奥	Mǎ lǐ ào	Mario (name)
奥斯瓦尔德	Ào sī wǎ ěr dé	Oswald
特奥会	Tè ào huì	Special Olympics
奥纳西斯	Ào nà xī sī	Onassis (name); Aristotle Onassis (1906-1975), Greek shipping magnate
奥巴马	Ào bā mǎ	Barack Obama (1961–), US Democrat politician, president 2009–2017
爱奥尼亚海	Ài ào ní yà Hǎi	Ionian Sea between Italy and Greece
奥斯特洛夫斯基	Ào sī tè luò fū sī jī	Nikolai Ostrovsky (1904-1936), Soviet socialist realist writer; Alexander Ostrovsky (1823-…
奥利维亚	Ào lì wéi yà	Olivia (name)
圣安东尼奥	Shèng ān dōng ní ào	San Antonio, Texas
奥克苏斯河	Ào kè sū sī Hé	Oxus River; alternative name for Amu Darya 阿姆河[A1 mu3 He2]

These characters use 奥 as their sound component — compare how they read.

Character	Pinyin	Meaning
奥 sound part	ào	mysterious, obscure, profound; used in transliterations
澳	ào	bay, cove, dock, inlet
懊	ào	vexed; regretful; nervous
噢	ō	to moan; interjection indicating pain or sadness
燠	yù	warm; warmth