炒 (chǎo): to stir-fry
炒 (chǎo) is a Chinese character meaning “to stir-fry.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 火 (semantic) and 少 (phonetic). It ranks #2481 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 炒 fire. Its radical form 火 (fire) appears in many related characters such as 火 (huǒ, fire), 灯 (dēng, lamp, light), 烟 (yān, smoke).
Definitions
- to stir-fry
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 炒 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
HSK Vocabulary with 炒
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 炒鱿鱼verb | chǎo yóu yú | (coll.) to fire sb |
| 炒作verb | chǎo zuò | to hype |
| 炒面noun | chǎo miàn | stir-fried noodles |
| 炒饭noun | chǎo fàn | fried rice |
| 炒菜verb | chǎo cài | to stir-fry |
| 炒米noun | chǎo mǐ | fried rice |
| 炒冷饭verb | chǎo lěng fàn | to stir-fry leftover rice |
| 爆炒verb | bào chǎo | to stir-fry rapidly using a high flame |
| 炒锅noun | chǎo guō | wok |
| 现炒现卖 | xiàn chǎo xiàn mài | lit. to fry and sell on the spot |
| 生炒热卖 | shēng chǎo rè mài | to sell while it's still hot (idiom) |
| 炒地皮 | chǎo dì pí | to speculate in building land |
| 热炒热卖 | rè chǎo rè mài | lit. to sell hot food freshly cooked |
| 炒家noun | chǎo jiā | speculator |
| 快炒店 | kuài chǎo diàn | (Tw) low-budget eatery |
炒 appears in 41 compound words: 59 as the first character, 22 as the last, and 20 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 炒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Example Sentences
炒青菜要用大火快炒，这样才能保持蔬菜的脆嫩。
Chǎo qīngcài yào yòng dàhuǒ kuài chǎo, zhèyàng cáinéng bǎochí shūcài de cuìnèn.
Stir-frying green vegetables requires high heat and quick cooking to maintain their crispness.
【北水炒D乜】净流出40.57亿元,买腾讯沽盈富...
běi shuǐ chǎo D 乜 jìng liú chū 4 0 . 5 7 yì yuán , mǎi téng xùn gū yíng fù . . .
[Beishui speculates] net outflow of 4.057 billion yuan, buy Tencent and sell Yingfu...
【北水炒D乜】净流入31.31亿元,买南方恒生科...
běi shuǐ chǎo D 乜 jìng liú rù 3 1 . 3 1 yì yuán , mǎi nán fāng héng shēng kē . . .
The net inflow was 3.131 billion yuan, buying Southern Hang Seng Technology...
【中环解密】日睡8小时被炒 投行分析师兴讼
zhōng huán jiě mì rì shuì 8 xiǎo shí bèi chǎo tóu háng fēn xī shī xīng sòng
【Central Decryption】Sleeping for 8 hours a day was fired and investment bank analysts filed a lawsuit
赤柱Tesla自炒撼栏 车头铲上行人路幸无伤
chì zhù T e s l a zì chǎo hàn lán chē tóu chǎn shàng háng rén lù xìng wú shāng
Stanley Tesla shook the railing with the front of the car shoveling on the sidewalk, but fortunately, there were no injuries
抖音集团李亮:炒作“字节是恒科的最大空头”很荒唐也..
dǒu yīn jí tuán lǐ liàng chǎo zuò zì jié shì héng kē de zuì dà kōng tóu hěn huāng táng yě . .
Jitterbug Group's Li Liang: The speculation that "Byte is the biggest short of Henco" is absurd and...
你害怕被炒鱿鱼吗？
Nǐ hàipà bèi chǎo yóuyú ma?
Are you afraid of being fired?
我知道怎么做俄式炒牛肉片。
Wǒ zhīdào zěnme zuò é shì chǎo niúròu piàn.
I know how to make beef stroganoff.
他叫了一盘炒什锦。
Tā jiào le yī pán chǎo shíjǐn.
He ordered a chop suey.
他在上个景气时期炒股攒下了一笔钱。
Tā zài shàngge jǐngqì shíqī chǎogǔ cuán xià le yī bǐ qián.
He amassed a fortune in stock trading during the last boom.
Character Family
Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 火 (fire) component
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 炒 (chǎo) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 炒 and 省?
How many strokes does 炒 have?
What is the radical of 炒?
What are the components of 炒?
What are common words containing 炒?
What characters sound the same as 炒 (chǎo)?
Is 炒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 炒 with real-time feedback
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