Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Han character

小 (radical 42 小+0, 3 strokes, cangjie input 弓金 (NC), four-corner 9000₀, composition ⿻亅八)

1. Kangxi radical #42, ⼩ ‎(“small”).
2. Shuōwén Jiězì radical №15

Derived terms

• 尛

References

• KangXi: page 296, character 18
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 7473
• Dae Jaweon: page 587, character 8
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 560, character 12
• Unihan data for U+5C0F

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 小
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bamboo and silk script	Large seal script	Small seal script

Ideogram (指事) . Two interpretations of 小 as an ideogram are possible:

1. It shows a person (人) with lowered arms, implying the meaning of small. In contrast, 大 (the character for large), symbolizes a person (人) with arms outstretched.
2. It shows an item divided into smaller parts 八 by a knife 亅.

In oracle bone script form, it is represented by a picture of three sand granules; compare with 少 (OC *hmjewʔ, *hmjews), represented by four dots in its oracle bone script form.

Pronunciation

Definitions

小

1. small, tiny, little

   Antonyms: 大 (dà)

   • 小孩 (xiǎohái, “child”)
2. minor, petty
3. briefly, for a short while
   • 小憩 (xiǎoqì, “brief rest”)
4. slightly, a little
5. young

   Antonyms: 老 (lǎo)

   • 小狗  ―  xiǎogǒu  ―  puppy
   • 小貓 / 小猫  ―  xiǎomāo  ―  kitten
   • 小羊  ―  xiǎoyáng  ―  lamb
   • 這嬰兒太小了，不能自己吃東西。 [MSC, trad.]
     这婴儿太小了，不能自己吃东西。 [MSC, simp.]

     Zhè yīng'ér tài xiǎo le, bù néng zìjǐ chī dōngxī. [Pinyin]

     The baby is too young to feed itself.

6. (the) youngest
   • 小兒子 / 小儿子  ―  xiǎoérzǐ  ―  youngest son
7. a young person; child, kid, baby
   • 一家老小  ―  yījiālǎoxiǎo  ―  the entire family, old and young
8. Prefix used in front of family name to indicate informality or affection (for young people, 老 (lǎo) for elder people).
   • For example, Someone called 李國寶／李国宝 can be called 小李.
9. (humble) my, our
   • 小弟  ―  xiǎodì  ―  [humble] I
   • 小女  ―  xiǎonǚ  ―  [humble] my daughter
   • 小的  ―  xiǎode  ―  [humble] I
10. Short for 小學／小学 (xiǎoxué, “primary school”). Used only in the abbreviation of a school name.
    • 二小  ―  Èr Xiǎo  ―  No.2 Primary School
11. (euphemistic, Cantonese) a euphemism of 屌 (diǎo)
    • 小你！ [Guangzhou Cantonese]  ―  Siu² nei⁵! [Jyutping]  ―  Duck you!

Synonyms

Compounds

Descendants

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Goon: しょう (shō)
• Kan’on: しょう (shō)
• Kun: ちいさい (小さい, chiisai), こ (ko), お (o), さ (sa)
• Nanori: いさら (isara), こう (kō), ささ (sasa), さざ (saza), しゃお (shao), ちいさ (chiisa)

Compounds

Idioms

• 大は小を兼ねる

  だいはしょうをかねる

  dai wa shō o kaneru

  The greater serves the lesser.

Pronunciation

• On'yomi
• (Tokyo) しょ​う [shóꜜò] (Atamadaka - [1])^[1][2]
• IPA^(key): [ɕo̞ː]

Noun

小 ‎(hiragana しょう, romaji shō, historical hiragana せう)

1. smallness; small size, small (sometimes used as an abbreviation for small serving, etc.)

Prefix

小 ‎(hiragana しょう, romaji shō-, historical hiragana せう)

1. small, little

小 ‎(hiragana こ, romaji ko-)

1. less in size or quantity, small, little, short
2. less in intensity, small, light, slight
3. of secondary importance, secondary, sub-
4. infant

Related terms

• 子 (こ) ‎(ko-): child
• 子 (こ) ‎(ko-): child
• 娘 (こ) ‎(ko-): daughter
• 仔 (こ) ‎(ko-): offspring

Suffix

小 ‎(hiragana しょう, romaji -shō, historical hiragana せう)

1. suffix after names of elementary schools

   佃小 (つくだしょう)

   tsukuda-shō

   Tsukuda Elementary School

References

1. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
2. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3

Korean

Hanja

小 • ‎(so)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 소 (revised: so, McCune-Reischauer: so, Yale: so)

• Name (hangeul): 작다 (revised: jakda, McCune-Reischauer: chakta, Yale: cakta)

1. smallness, small things

Compounds

• 소음순 (小陰脣, so-eumsun, “labia minora”)

Vietnamese

Han character

小 (tiểu)

1. (only before noun) small