掺 (chān): to mix, to blend, to dilute, to adulterate, to grasp

掺 (chān) is a Chinese character meaning “to mix.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 参 (phonetic). It ranks #2873 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 掺 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).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 扌 hand11 strokesFrequency #2873扌 semantic参 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to mix
  2. to blend
  3. to dilute
  4. to adulterate
  5. to grasp

Etymology & Origin

掺

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌参 (layout: left-right)

Components:扌semantic参phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
掺假chān jiǎto mix in fake material
掺水chān shuǐto dilute
掺沙子chān shā zito mix in some sand (e.g. when making concrete)
掺和chān huoto mix
4
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

掺 appears in 4 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 0 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 掺 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

杂zá
0.6353,768 co-occurrences
坷kē
0.45530 co-occurrences
浓nóng
0.438150 co-occurrences
纤qiàn
0.430102 co-occurrences
剂jì
0.415198 co-occurrences
铝lǚ
0.39242 co-occurrences
氧yǎng
0.371156 co-occurrences
浆jiāng
0.37030 co-occurrences
黏nián
0.35136 co-occurrences
入rù
0.3501,194 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他掺了一个电话，约朋友晚上一起吃饭。

tā chān le yī gě diàn huà , yāo péng yǒu wǎn shǎng yī qǐ chī fàn .

He made a phone call to arrange dinner with a friend that evening.

Tatoeba

所有的社交，自然而然地，都会掺入一些虚伪的成分，我想这是有其必要的。

Suǒyǒu de shèjiāo, zìrán'érrán de, dōu huì chān rù yīxiē xūwěi de chéngfèn, wǒ xiǎng zhè shì yǒu qí bìyào de.

All social interactions, naturally, will involve some degree of insincerity, which I believe is necessary.

Character Family

扌 Radical Family — Characters sharing the hand radical

挨āi按àn扒bā拔bá把bǎ摆bǎi扳bān搬bān扮bàn拌bàn

Related Characters

手shǒu打dǎ找zhǎo拿ná才cái护hù报bào拉lā挺tǐng换huàn

Homophones — Characters pronounced chān

搀chān禅chán馋chán缠chán产chǎn铲chǎn阐chǎn颤chàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 掺 (chān) mean in Chinese?
掺 (chān) primarily means "to mix." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2873 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 掺 and 惨?
掺 (chān) and 惨 (cǎn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 忄 (same 参 component).
How many strokes does 掺 have?
掺 is written with 11 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 掺?
The radical associated with 掺 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 掺?
掺 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 参 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌参 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 掺?
Common words with 掺 include: 掺假 (chān jiǎ, "to mix in fake material"); 掺水 (chān shuǐ, "to dilute"); 掺沙子 (chān shā zi, "to mix in some sand (e.g. when making concrete)"); 掺和 (chān huo, "to mix"). There are over 4 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 掺 (chān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chān: 搀 (to take by the arm and assist), 禅 (dhyana (Sanskrit)), 馋 (greedy), 缠 (to wind around), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 掺 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 掺 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.