窖 (jiào) · cellar; underground storage pit

Meanings

1 cellar; underground storage pit
2 to store (food, wine, ice) in a cellar

Characters

窖

jiào

underground storage pit; cellar

Examples

HSK 3

这酒在地窖里窖了二十年。

Zhè jiǔ zài dìjiào lǐ jiào le èrshí nián.

This wine has been cellared underground for twenty years.

HSK 5

北方人冬天把白菜放在地窖里。

Běifāng rén dōngtiān bǎ báicài fàng zài dìjiào lǐ.

Northerners store cabbage in cellars during winter.

Tips

memory

穴 (cave/pit radical) on top + 告 (gào, phonetic) below. The cave-radical signals an underground pit; the reading shifted from gào to jiào. Common compounds: 地窖 dìjiào (cellar), 冰窖 bīngjiào (ice cellar), 红薯窖 hóngshǔjiào (sweet-potato pit).

Components

radical

穴 xué

cave; pit; den

Top cave radical (Kangxi #116) - a dwelling-pit roofed by 宀 with two leg-strokes for the opening, picturing an underground chamber. Indexes 窖 in the dug-hole family: 穿 (pierce), 窝 (nest), 窜 (flee into a hole), 穷 (impoverished). A 窖 is a storage pit dug into the earth, often for pickling vegetables or root crops.

phonetic

告 gào

announce; tell (here phonetic)

Bottom 告 supplies the sound (gào → jiào, regular k/j palatalisation). 告 itself pictures 牛 (ox) over 口 (mouth), originally 'to announce sacrificially'; that meaning has no role here. Pure phonetic. Same phonetic series gives 浩 (vast), 皓 (white-bright), 靠 (lean against), 鹄 (target). Common compounds: 地窖 (cellar), 冰窖 (ice cellar), 窖藏 (cellaring, ageing).