ZHIZHI 知止 · LEARN CHINESE DAILY

number / date / sign

hào
5 strokes · 口 (mouth) + 丂 — a cry that became a label · HSK 1

Where 号 comes from

号 began as a wail — a mouth 口 crying out (the fuller traditional form 號 adds a tiger 虎 roaring). From a cry to a call-sign to a label: the number or name by which something is called.

号 in Chinese culture

号 organizes Chinese life: dates (几月几号? — what date?), sizes (大号, large), phone numbers (手机号), and social media handles (微信号, your WeChat ID). 今天几号? is among the first questions every learner masters. In classical times a scholar's 号 was his literary pseudonym — Su Dongpo's 东坡 ('Eastern Slope') is a 号 more famous than his real name.

Example

几号 jǐ hào — what date?

今天是几号?
Jīntiān shì jǐ hào?
What's the date today?

How to remember it

A mouth 口 calling out a label — NUMBER, DATE, SIGN.

Classical literati collected 号 (pen names) like modern people collect usernames — some poets had a dozen.

Same sound, different tones

2nd háo
to wail (háo)
3rd hǎo
good
4th hào
number

Words unlocked by 号

几号 jǐ hào
what date
手机号 shǒujīhào
phone number
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