错 — mistake; wrong; bad
mistake; wrong; bad; interlocking; complex; to grind; to polish
- Pinyin
- cuò · Cuò
- Strokes
- 13
- HSK level
- HSK 2
- Handwriting
- recognition only
This character has more than one reading — cuò, Cuò — and the pronunciation depends on the word it appears in. The list below gives the syllabus reading for each word.
How to write 错: 13 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. The syllabus asks you to recognise this character rather than write it by hand.
Words with 错 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.
- 不错búcuòcorrect; right; not bad; pretty goodHSK 2
- 错cuòmistake; wrong; bad; interlocking; complex; to grindHSK 2
- 错过cuòguòto missHSK 4
- 错误cuòwùmistaken; false; wrong; error; mistakeHSK 4
- 认错rèncuòto admit an error; to acknowledge one's mistakeHSK 6
- 差错chācuòmistake; slip-up; fault; error; accident; mishapHSK 7–9
- 错别字cuòbiézìChinese character errorHSK 7–9
- 错觉cuòjuémisconception; illusion; misperceptionHSK 7–9
- 错位cuòwèito be wrongly positioned; to be dislocated; to be misplacedHSK 7–9
- 错综复杂cuòzōng-fùzátangled and complicatedHSK 7–9
- 过错guòcuòmistake; fault; responsibilityHSK 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.