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xiao

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xiao¹

  • /ʃjaʊ/

Where it comes from

Borrowed the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 簫 /箫 (xiāo).

noun xiaos

  1. A type of Chinese flute. Chou studied violin and erhu (a two-stringed Chinese fiddle) and tried to emulate his second brother by dabbling in the harmonica, mandolin, xiao (a vertical Chinese flute), and the musical saw.

Xiao²

Where it comes from

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin for 肖 (Xiāo) and 蕭／萧 (Xiāo).

proper noun Xiaos · Hsiao

  1. A surname.

    Similar: Siau

Xiao³

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Mandarin 小 (xiǎo).

proper noun Hsiao

  1. in Chinese contexts Usually attached to a surname, signifying a little one, junior, small guy, younger person.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: primary, light, empress, younger, young, short, hiu, little, siu, small, petty, lesser, minor, shaw, takashi, hsiao

Translations

Every language

noun Chinese flute

한국어소 so
日本語簫 shō
中文簫 /箫 xiāo, 洞簫 /洞箫 dòngxiāo
Русскийсяо sjao
Tiếng Việttiêu

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Cite this
MLA

"xiao." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/xiao. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

xiao. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/xiao

Chicago

"xiao." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/xiao.

BibTeX
@misc{xiao_2026,
  title = {xiao},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/xiao},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}