餐 (cān): meal, to eat, classifier for meals

餐 (cān) is a Chinese character meaning “meal.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 歺 (structural), 又 (structural) and 食 (semantic). It ranks #1456 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 餐 food. Its radical form 饣 (eat) appears in many related characters such as 饭 (fàn, meal, rice), 饿 (è, hungry), 馆 (guǎn, restaurant, hall).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. meal
  2. to eat
  3. classifier for meals

Etymology & Origin

餐

pictophoneticfood

Decomposition: ⿱⿰歺又食 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 餐

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
晚餐nounwǎn cānevening meal4
午餐nounwǔ cānlunch4
餐厅nouncān tīngdining hall4
早餐nounzǎo cānbreakfast4
用餐verbyòng cānto eat a meal6
快餐nounkuài cānfast food4
中餐nounzhōng cānlunch4
套餐nountào cānset meal6
聚餐verbjù cānto get together for a meal4
餐饮nouncān yǐnfood and beverage5
西餐nounxī cānWestern-style food5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
餐馆nouncān guǎnrestaurant
野餐nounyě cānpicnic
大餐noundà cānsumptuous meal
餐桌nouncān zhuōdining table
餐具nouncān jùtableware
自助餐nounzì zhù cānbuffet
餐巾nouncān jīnnapkin
快餐店nounkuài cān diànfast food shop
进餐verbjìn cānto have a meal
餐车nouncān chēdining car
正餐nounzhèng cān(regular) meal
圣餐nounshèng cānHoly Communion
午餐会nounwǔ cān huìluncheon
餐巾纸nouncān jīn zhǐpaper napkin
餐会cān huìdinner party
85
Total compounds
26
As first character
55
As last character
19
As middle character

餐 appears in 85 compound words: 26 as the first character, 55 as the last, and 19 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 餐 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

厅tīng
0.61716,410 co-occurrences
饮yǐn
0.5766,032 co-occurrences
脆cuì
0.54944 co-occurrences
桌zhuō
0.5222,690 co-occurrences
晚wǎn
0.4958,266 co-occurrences
辣là
0.48346 co-occurrences
茶chá
0.4682,904 co-occurrences
店diàn
0.4546,718 co-occurrences
午wǔ
0.4446,034 co-occurrences
馆guǎn
0.4444,768 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

饱餐一顿bǎocānyīdùnHSK 4+

to eat one's fill, to be full

phrase
废寝忘餐fèi qǐn wàng cānHSK 7+

see 廢寢忘食|废寝忘食

phrase
风餐露宿fēngcānlùsùHSK 6+

to endure the hardship of living and travelling out in the wild

phrase
尸位素餐shīwèisùcānHSK 7+

hold one's position and live without doing anything

phrase
忘餐废寝wàng cān fèi qǐnHSK 7+

see 廢寢忘食|废寝忘食

phrase
秀色可餐xiùsèkěcānHSK 4+

extremely attractive; breathtakingly beautiful

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

餐堂里的饭菜虽然简单,但很可口。

cān táng lǐ de fàn cài suī rán jiǎn shàn , dàn hěn kě kǒu .

The food in the cafeteria is simple but delicious.

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

阿里云编程套餐月费最低7.9元

ā lǐ yún biān chéng tào cān yuè fèi zuì dī 7 . 9 yuán

Alibaba Cloud programming package has a minimum monthly fee of 7.9 yuan

StheadlineFeb 2026

麦当劳2.23起推全新人气着数套餐 脆辣鸡腿饱餐首次加入 黄泽林首拍“老麦...

mài dāng láo 2 . 2 3 qǐ tuī quán xīn rén qì zhe shǔ tào cān cuì là jī tuǐ bǎo cān shǒu cì jiā rù huáng zé lín shǒu pāi lǎo mài . . .

McDonald's launches a new popular set meal from 2.23 Crispy and spicy chicken thighs to the full meal for the first time Huang Zelin's first shot "Lao Mai...

東森新聞Feb 2026

独家/疑不满出餐太慢! 复古咖啡厅男乱泼美式

dú jiā yí bù mǎn chū cān tài màn ! fù gǔ kā fēi tīng nán luàn pō měi shì

Exclusive/Suspected that the food is too slow! Retro café men splash American style

StheadlineFeb 2026

麦当劳全新人气着数套餐优惠!脆辣鸡腿饱餐减$10 麦乐鸡/麦炸...

mài dāng láo quán xīn rén qì zhe shǔ tào cān yōu huì ! cuì là jī tuǐ bǎo cān jiǎn 1 0 mài lè jī mài zhà . . .

McDonald's new popular set meal discount! Crispy and spicy chicken thighs $10 off McNuggets/McNuggets...

三立新聞網Feb 2026

9人吃2万 杨绣惠揭冲绳餐厅规定:被当盘子

9 rén chī 2 wàn yáng xiù huì jiē chōng shéng cān tīng guī dìng : bèi dāng pán zǐ

9 people eat 20,000 Yang Xiuhui revealed the rules of the Okinawan restaurant: being used as a plate

Tatoeba

你早餐吃了些什么?

Nǐ zǎocān chī le xiē shénme?

What did you eat for breakfast?

Tatoeba

你今早有没有吃早餐?

Nǐ jīn zǎo yǒuméiyǒu chī zǎocān?

Did you have breakfast this morning?

Tatoeba

为什么玛丽和他去野餐?

Wèishénme Mǎlì hé tā qù yěcān?

How come Mary is going on a picnic with him?

Tatoeba

你可以把我的早餐送到305房间吗?

Nǐ kěyǐ bǎ wǒ de zǎocān sòng dào 305 fángjiān ma?

Could you bring my breakfast to room 305?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced cān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 餐 (cān) mean in Chinese?
餐 (cān) primarily means "meal." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1456 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 餐 have?
餐 is written with 16 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 餐?
The radical associated with 餐 is 饣 (eat). This radical appears in many characters related to eat.
What are the components of 餐?
餐 is composed of: 歺 (structural), 又 (structural), 食 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱⿰歺又食 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 餐?
Common words with 餐 include: 晚餐 (wǎn cān, "evening meal"); 午餐 (wǔ cān, "lunch"); 餐厅 (cān tīng, "dining hall"); 早餐 (zǎo cān, "breakfast"); 餐馆 (cān guǎn, "restaurant"). There are over 85 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 餐 (cān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cān: 参 (to take part in), 残 (to destroy), 惨 (miserable), 灿 (glorious), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 餐 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 餐 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 餐 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.