沉 (chén): to submerge, to immerse, to sink, to keep down, to lower, to drop
沉 (chén) is a Chinese character meaning “to submerge.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (structural) and 冗 (structural). It ranks #747 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 沉 an excessive 冗 amount of water 氵. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).
Definitions
- to submerge
- to immerse
- to sink
- to keep down
- to lower
- to drop
Etymology & Origin
ideographicAn excessive 冗 amount of water 氵
Decomposition: ⿰氵冗 (layout: left-right)
Stroke Order
Practice writing 沉 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
HSK Vocabulary with 沉
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 沉迷 | chén mí | to be engrossed |
| 沉浸 | chén jìn | to soak |
| 消沉 | xiāo chén | to sink into despondency |
| 沉睡 | chén shuì | to be fast asleep |
| 沉没 | chén mò | to sink |
| 沉溺 | chén nì | variant of 沉溺[chen2 ni4] |
| 沉醉 | chén zuì | to become intoxicated |
| 沉闷 | chén mèn | oppressive (of weather) |
| 沉思 | chén sī | to contemplate |
| 下沉 | xià chén | to sink down |
| 沉船 | chén chuán | shipwreck |
| 沉着 | chén zhuó | steady |
| 沉沦 | chén lún | to sink into (vice, depravity etc) |
| 深沉 | shēn chén | deep |
| 阴沉 | yīn chén | gloomy |
沉 appears in 88 compound words: 65 as the first character, 18 as the last, and 17 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 沉 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (13)
a stone sinks in the ocean; to receive no response; to never hear back from someone or about something
to burn one's boats; to cross the Rubicon; to reach the point of no return
a stone sinks in the ocean; to receive no response; to never hear back from someone or about something
to burn one's boats; to cross the Rubicon; to reach the point of no return
Showing 12 of 13 idioms containing 沉.
Example Sentences
船沉入了海底，救援人员正在全力搜救。
Chuán chén rù le hǎidǐ, jiùyuán rényuán zhèngzài quánlì sōujiù.
The ship sank to the bottom of the sea, and rescue personnel are conducting a full search and rescue.
冷眼集/检座疑开地下钱庄 菁英沉沦
lěng yǎn jí jiǎn zuò yí kāi dì xià qián zhuāng 菁 yīng chén 沦
Cold eye collection/inspection of the seat suspected of opening an underground bank, the elite sinking
倪晨曦沉迷学AI剪片与时并进 惊喜荣登KOL三甲...
倪 chén 曦 chén mí xué A I jiǎn piàn yǔ shí bìng jìn jīng xǐ róng dēng K O L sān jiǎ . . .
Ni Chenxi is addicted to learning AI film editing to keep pace with the times and is surprised to be ranked among the top three KOLs...
一辆载有8名中国游客的汽车在俄贝加尔湖沉没
yī liàng zài yǒu 8 míng zhōng guó yóu kè de qì chē zài é bèi jiā ěr hú chén méi
A car carrying eight Chinese tourists sank in Lake Baikal
豫哈零碳协作,让河南产业援疆“沉下去”“实起来”
yù hā líng tàn xié zuò , ràng hé nán chǎn yè yuán jiāng chén xià qù shí qǐ lái
Yu-Ha zero-carbon collaboration, so that Henan's industrial aid "sinking" and "real up".
欧洲头条丨慕尼黑的沉默,比争吵更刺耳
ōu zhōu tóu tiáo 丨 mù ní hēi de chén mò , bǐ zhēng chǎo gēng cī ěr
European headlines丨Munich's silence, more harsh than the quarrels
雄辩如银，沉默如金。
Xióngbiàn rú yín, chénmò rú jīn.
Eloquence is silver, silence is golden.
他沉醉于喜悦之中。
Tā chénzuì yú xǐyuè zhīzhōng.
He was drunk with joy.
你看起来昏昏沉沉。
Nǐ kànqǐlai hūnhūnchénchén.
You looked like you were dizzy.
木质家具沉甸甸的。
Mùzhì jiājù chéndiàndiàn de.
Wooden furniture is heavy.
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 沉 (chén) mean in Chinese?
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What characters sound the same as 沉 (chén)?
Is 沉 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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