Chinese character for good: 好 (hǎo)

The Chinese character for good is 好 (hǎo). It means good, well or fine and appears in 你好 (nǐ hǎo, hello) and 好人 (hǎorén, a good person). Read hào, it means to like, as in 爱好 (àihào, hobby).

How 好 is built

好 joins 女 (nǚ, woman) on the left with 子 (zǐ, child) on the right. The common explanation is a mother holding her child, something good and beautiful. Another reading is a woman and a son together, a happy family. Either way, it is one of the best-loved compound characters for learners. 好 is identical in simplified and traditional Chinese.

好 hǎo · good

• 女nǚ — woman
• 子zǐ — child
  • 了liǎo / le — finish
    • 乛 — bent stroke
    • 亅 — hook
  • 一 — horizontal stroke

Origin hint: A woman 女 with a son 子 (from the Make Me a Hanzi dataset; treat as a memory aid where history is uncertain)

How 好 is used

Before you use it as a tattoo or design: 好 is identical in both scripts, but a lone 好 reads like 'OK' or 'fine', so a phrase such as 好运 (good luck) carries more meaning.

Questions

Related

• 善kindness
• 母mother
• 孩子child
• 幸福happiness
• 运luck

Full page for 好 › All characters for words