消 (xiāo) — HSK 4 Recognition Character: Meaning, Radical & Stroke Order

xiāo news, rumors; to die out, to melt away, to vanish 10 strokes · Radical 氵 (water) · HSK 4 recognition character (认读字)

👁 Recognition only: the official HSK 4 syllabus asks you to recognize 消 when reading — handwriting it is not required (that applies to the 150 writing characters). The stroke animation below is optional but helps memory.

Pronunciation & meaning

Pronounced xiāo.

news
rumors
to die out
to melt away
to vanish

Stroke Order & Practice

Click Animate to see the correct stroke order, then Practice to trace it yourself.

消 — 10 strokes, numbered in writing order. 笔顺图（数字为下笔顺序）。

Decomposition

消 breaks down into 2 components arranged as Left + Right. Recognizing the components makes the character easier to remember and write.

消 =

氵 left water

肖 right to resemble

Radical

The radical of 消 is 氵 — meaning water. Radicals are the indexing components used in Chinese dictionaries; they often hint at a character's broad meaning category.

Other HSK 4 characters that share this radical: 济江深油汤流温汗浪漫泼污.

How the character is built

消 is a phono-semantic compound. The semantic component 氵 (water) carries the meaning, while the phonetic component 肖 originally indicated the sound.

HSK 4 Words Containing 消

取消 qǔxiāo to cancel

因为天气原因，航班被取消了。

Yīnwèi tiānqì yuányīn, hángbān bèi qǔxiāo le.

The flight was cancelled due to weather.

消息 xiāoxi news; message; information

你听到那个好消息了吗？

Nǐ tīngdào nàge hǎo xiāoxi le ma?

Did you hear the good news?

Seen in the Real Exams / 真题例句

消 appears in 26 questions across the 19 mock & official HSK 4 exams on this site. Real exam sentences using it:

看图，用"消息"造句。

From Mock Exam 05 →

你先别着急，有消息我会第一时间通知你的。

From Mock Exam 12 →

消息是谁通知的？

From Mock Exam 03 →

Tasks Featuring 消 / 相关任务

Words containing 消 appear in these official HSK 4 task scenarios — study the character in context:

📚 谈论社会现象

Social Phenomena · 消息

FAQ

What does 消 mean in Chinese?

消 (xiāo) means news, rumors; to die out, to melt away, to vanish. It is one of the 441 characters HSK 4 requires you to recognize when reading (认读字).

How many strokes does 消 have?

消 is written in 10 strokes. Use the practice tool above to see the correct stroke order and trace it yourself.

What is the radical of 消?

The radical of 消 is 氵 (water). Other HSK 4 characters with the same radical include 济, 江, 深, 油, 汤.

What is the pinyin for 消?

消 is pronounced xiāo.

What HSK 4 words use 消?

In our HSK 4 vocabulary, 消 appears in 2 words, including 取消 (qǔxiāo), 消息 (xiāoxi). See the full list above.