号啕大哭 (háo táo dà kū) — to cry loudly, to wail

Definition

A vivid four-character verb meaning 'to wail and cry loudly' — used for uncontrolled, dramatic weeping (grief, shock). Built from 啕 'wail' and 大哭 'cry hard', so it stresses loudness more than 哭 alone.

verb
to cry loudlyto wail

Examples

  • ，号啕大哭。
    Tīng dào zhè ge xiāo xi, tā rěn bú zhù háo táo dà kū qǐ lái.
    Upon hearing this news, she couldn't help but wail loudly.
  • 号啕大哭。
    Hái zi zài mā ma lí kāi hòu háo táo dà kū.
    The child cried loudly after his mother left.
  • 号啕大哭。
    Tā háo táo dà kū le zhěng zhěng yí gè wǎn shàng.
    He wailed loudly for the entire night.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

号啕wail
号hào啕táo
大哭cry loudly
大dàloudly哭kūcry
偏正Modifier + head

号啕 contributes the idea of wailing, and 大哭 contributes crying loudly; together they picture crying with loud wails.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

  • 口口kǒumouth
  • 丂丂kǎoexhaled air; a tiger's cry

The shape 号 comes from 口, a mouth, and 丂, exhaled air or a tiger's cry.

Open 号 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Open 大 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
吅吅xuānto speak loudly
Sound part声符shēngfú
獄
獄yù哭kū
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

Early 哭 showed 吅, loudly, above a long-haired person; that lower part later became dog-like shapes. Later, 哭 was analyzed as 吅 plus 獄 for sound.

Open 哭 →

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