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高

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high; tall; above average; loud; your (honorific)

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HSK 3.0
Level 1
Old HSK
Level 1
Strokes
10
Radical
高 itself
Structure
Top–middle–bottom 上中下
Traditional
高
Common rank
#47
Unicode
U+9AD8

Sound it out + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

How 高 is formed

Pictograph (象形字)

A tall palace

Components 亠 口 冋

How to remember it

tall · Heisig RSH #325

向 orientation + 口 mouth + helmet + top hat — as a component also called: tall, tiara

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

Words with 高

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

WordPinyinMeaning
高兴 gāo xìng happy; glad; willing (to do sth); in a cheerful mood
人高马大 rén gāo mǎ dà tall and strong
高山区 gāo shān qū alpine district
高头大马 gāo tóu dà mǎ (idiom) tall, imposing horse; (of a person) tall and well-built
高中学生 gāo zhōng xué shēng student of a senior high school
高大 gāo dà tall; lofty; towering
高中生 gāo zhōng shēng senior high school student
自高自大 zì gāo zì dà to think of oneself as terrific (idiom); arrogant
高人 gāo rén very able person
高县 Gāo Xiàn Gao County or Gaoxian, a county in Yibin City 宜賓市|宜宾市[Yi2 bin1 Shi4], Sichuan
高山 gāo shān high mountain; alpine mountain
高大上 gāo dà shàng (slang) high-end, elegant, and classy; abbr. for 高端大氣上檔次|高端大气上档次
山高水长 shān gāo shuǐ cháng high as the mountain and long as the river (idiom); fig. noble and far-reaching
高分子化学 gāo fēn zǐ huà xué polymer chemistry
高中 gāo zhōng senior high school (abbr. for 高級中學|高级中学[gao1 ji2 zhong1 xue2])
高中 gāo zhòng to pass brilliantly (used in congratulatory fashion)
高头 gāo tou higher authority; the bosses; on top of
上高县 Shàng gāo Xiàn Shanggao, a county in Yichun City 宜春市[Yi2 chun1 Shi4], Jiangxi
高斯 Gāo sī Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855), German mathematician
高斯 gāo sī gauss, unit of magnetic induction

Sound family

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

CharacterPinyinMeaning
高 sound part gāo tall, lofty; high, elevated
豪 háo brave, heroic, chivalrous
膏 gāo grease, fat; ointment, paste
稿 gǎo draft, manuscript, rough copy
敲 qiāo to hammer, to pound, to strike
搞 gǎo to do, to fix, to make, to settle
镐 hào stove; bright
蒿 hāo mugwort, wormwood, Artemisia; to give off a scent
槁 gǎo to wither; withered, rotten, dead
篙 gāo a pole used to punt a boat
犒 kào victory feast; to throw a banquet
缟 gǎo plain white silk
暠 gǎo daybreak; brilliant, bright