擦 (cā): to rub, to scratch, to wipe, to polish, to apply (lipstick, lotion etc)

擦 (cā) is a Chinese character meaning “to rub.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 察 (phonetic). It ranks #1744 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 擦 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to rub
  2. to scratch
  3. to wipe
  4. to polish
  5. to apply (lipstick, lotion etc)

Etymology & Origin

擦

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌察 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

Practice writing 擦 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
擦伤nouncā shāngto abrade
摩擦verbmó cāfriction
擦屁股verbcā pì guto wipe one’s ass
擦掉verbcā diàoto wipe
擦肩而过phrasecā jiān ér guòto brush past
擦亮verbcā liàngto polish
擦拭verbcā shìto wipe clean
擦洗verbcā xǐto clean (with water or alcohol)
擦边球nouncā biān qiú(table tennis) edge ball
摩拳擦掌phrasemó quán cā zhǎngfig. to rub one's fists and wipe one's palms (idiom)
磨擦verbmó cāvariant of 摩擦
橡皮擦nounxiàng pí cāeraser
摩擦力nounmó cā lìfriction
擦澡verbcā zǎoto rub down with a wet towel
板擦nounbǎn cāblackboard or whiteboard eraser
49
Total compounds
61
As first character
14
As last character
24
As middle character

擦 appears in 49 compound words: 61 as the first character, 14 as the last, and 24 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 擦 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

摩mó
0.5859,570 co-occurrences
浊zhuó
0.529332 co-occurrences
磨mó
0.504992 co-occurrences
橡xiàng
0.503591 co-occurrences
刮guā
0.497268 co-occurrences
肩jiān
0.480586 co-occurrences
音yīn
0.4615,468 co-occurrences
颤chàn
0.45974 co-occurrences
撞zhuàng
0.455739 co-occurrences
塞sāi
0.4381,674 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

挨肩擦背āi jiān cā bèiHSK 7+

(idiom) to be crowded together

phrase
擦肩而过cājiān'érguòHSK 6+

to brush past (someone, opportunity, death, etc.)

phrase
擦亮眼睛cā liàng yǎn jīngHSK 4+

to keep one's eyes open (idiom); to be on one's guard; to be clear-eyed

phrase
擦身而过cāshēn'érguòHSK 4+

to brush past (someone, opportunity, death, etc.)

phrase
摩拳擦掌móquáncāzhǎngHSK 7+

to rub one's fists and wipe one's palms; to roll up one's sleeves for a battle

phrase
磨拳擦掌mó quán cā zhǎngHSK 7+

variant of 摩拳擦掌

phrase

Showing 6 of 7 idioms containing 擦.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

她用抹布擦了擦桌子,把灰尘都清理干净了。

Tā yòng mābù cā le cā zhuōzi, bǎ huīchén dōu qīnglǐ gānjìng le.

She wiped the table with a cloth, cleaning off all the dust.

99 健康网Mar 2026

...下面瘙痒是什么原因引起的?肥胖者腹股沟摩擦加重症状吗

. . . xià miàn 瘙 yǎng shì shén má yuán yīn yǐn qǐ de ? féi pàng zhě fù gǔ gōu mó cā jiā chóng zhèng zhuàng ma

... What causes itching below? Do obese people aggravate groin friction?

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

2025年12月份全球经贸摩擦指数继续处于高位

2 0 2 5 nián 1 2 yuè fèn quán qiú jīng mào mó cā zhǐ shǔ jì xù chǔ yú gāo wèi

The global economic and trade friction index will continue to be high in December 2025

NewtalkFeb 2026

化学槽车擦撞护栏 国1五堵段回堵4公里

huà xué cáo chē cā zhuàng hù lán guó 1 wǔ dǔ duàn huí dǔ 4 gōng lǐ

The chemical tank truck collided with the guardrail and the five blocking sections of National 1 blocked 4 kilometers

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

桃園某知名遭離職員工指控 水果發霉竟擦掉後重新上架賣

táo 園 mǒu zhī míng zāo 離 職 員 gōng zhǐ kòng shuǐ guǒ 發 méi jìng cā diào 後 chóng xīn shàng jià 賣

A well-known person in Taoyuan was accused by a resigned employee of wiping off the moldy fruit and putting it back on the shelves for sale

公視新聞網 PnnFeb 2026

機車擦撞南橫瓦筏哈橋護欄 騎士摔落送醫仍不治

機 車 cā zhuàng nán 橫 wǎ 筏 hā 橋 護 欄 騎 shì shuāi luò sòng 醫 réng bù zhì

Motorcycle crashes into guardrail at South Crossing Waveshire Bridge, sending rider to hospital where he died.

Tatoeba

汤姆小心翼翼地把刀子上的指纹擦掉。

Tāngmǔ xiǎoxīnyìyì de bǎ dāozi shàng de zhǐwén cādiào.

Tom carefully wiped his fingerprints off the knife.

Tatoeba

齐里擦拭他的军靴。

Qí lǐ cāshì tā de jūn xuē.

Ziri cleaned his combat boots.

Tatoeba

在家里,麦克的工作就是擦窗户。

Zài jiālǐ, màikè de gōngzuò jiùshì cā chuānghu.

When Michael is at home, his work is to clean the windows.

Tatoeba

我在擦鞋垫下面发现了这把钥匙。

Wǒ zài cāxiédiàn xiàmiàn fāxiàn le zhè bǎ yàoshi.

I found the key underneath the mat.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 擦 (cā) mean in Chinese?
擦 (cā) primarily means "to rub." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1744 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 擦 have?
擦 is written with 17 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 擦?
The radical associated with 擦 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 擦?
擦 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 察 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌察 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 擦?
Common words with 擦 include: 擦伤 (cā shāng, "to abrade"); 摩擦 (mó cā, "friction"); 擦屁股 (cā pì gu, "to wipe one’s ass"); 擦掉 (cā diào, "to wipe"); 擦肩而过 (cā jiān ér guò, "to brush past"). There are over 49 compound words containing this character.
Is 擦 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 擦 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 擦 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.