吵闹 (chǎo nào) — to make a racket, to be noisy; to quarrel, to h…

Definition

吵闹 covers both senses: making noise (a noisy place) and quarreling loudly. The verb separates — 吵闹起来 means 'to start quarreling'.

verb

to make a racketto be noisyto quarrelto have a loud argument

吵闹。
Tā men yīn wèi xiǎo shì chǎo nào qǐ lái.
They started quarreling over a small matter.
吵闹，。
Gé bì yì zhí zài chǎo nào, wǒ wú fǎ jí zhōng zhù yì lì.
The neighbors have been making a racket; I can't concentrate.
吵闹，。
Zhè jiā cān tīng tài chǎo nào le, wǒ men huàn yì jiā ba.
This restaurant is too noisy; let's switch to another one.

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

吵 and 闹 both involve noise or quarreling, so together they describe loud disturbance or a row.

Characters in this word

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

口少吵

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

少

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

吵 is built from 口, a mouth, plus 少, which supplies the sound. The mouth part matches meanings about noise and quarreling.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 鬧; 闹 is its simplified writing.

鬥市鬧

The traditional form 鬧 combines 鬥 (to fight) and 市 (market; town) to mean noisy.

Appears in