草 — grass; straw; manuscript
grass; straw; manuscript; draft; careless; rough
- Pinyin
- cǎo · cào
- Strokes
- 9
- HSK level
- HSK 3
- Handwriting
- required
This character has more than one reading — cǎo, cào — and the pronunciation depends on the word it appears in. The list below gives the syllabus reading for each word.
How to write 草: 9 strokes
Each cell adds one stroke to the previous ones, with the new stroke in red. Stroke order is not decoration: it sets the proportions of the character and makes handwriting legible to a reader. This character is on the HSK handwriting list, so the exam expects you to write it, not only recognise it.
Words with 草 in the HSK syllabus: 11
Every word in the official 2026 syllabus that contains this character, with the level it is introduced at. Learning a character pays off through these: each one combines with the characters you already know.
- 草cǎograss; straw; manuscript; draft; careless; roughHSK 3
- 草地cǎodìlawn; meadow; sod; turfHSK 3
- 草原cǎoyuángrassland; prairieHSK 6
- 草案cǎo’àndraftHSK 7–9
- 草丛cǎocóngunderbrushHSK 7–9
- 草坪cǎopínglawnHSK 7–9
- 草率cǎoshuàicareless; negligent; sloppy; not seriousHSK 7–9
- 草药cǎoyàoherbal medicineHSK 7–9
- 稻草dàocǎorice strawHSK 7–9
- 潦草liáocǎoslipshod; careless; slovenly; scrawly; illegibleHSK 7–9
- 起草qǐcǎoto make a draft; to draw upHSK 7–9
Glosses come from CC-CEDICT, used under CC BY-SA 4.0, and are the dictionary’s first sense rather than a translation chosen for context.