qiáo

bridge

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Simplified form of .

Components
木 meaning component

  Meaning component

  

tree

乔 sound component

  Sound component

qiáo

  

tall

Evolution

桥 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
桥 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
桥 Traditional script Modern

Traditional script

Modern
桥 Simplified script Modern

Simplified script

Modern
Definitions

() 

qiáo

bridge; beam, crosspiece; CL:[zuò]

Most common words with 桥
Freq.
Word
Meaning

bridge

大桥

Da Qiao, one of the Two Qiaos, according to Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國演義|三国演义[Sān​guó​Yǎn​yì], the two great beauties of ancient China

桥梁

bridge (lit. and fig.)

天桥

Tianqiao district of Ji'nan city 濟南市|济南市[Jǐ​nán​shì], Shandong

剑桥

Cambridge