醋 (cù): vinegar, jealousy (in love rivalry)

醋 (cù) is a Chinese character meaning “vinegar.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 酉 (structural) and 昔 (structural). It ranks #2783 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 醋 aged 昔 wine 酉; wine gone sour. Its radical form 酉 (wine) appears in many related characters such as 配 (pèi, to join), 酸 (suān, sour), 醒 (xǐng, to wake up).

Native pronunciation
HSK 6Radical: 酉 wine15 strokesFrequency #2783酉 structural昔 structural

Definitions

  1. vinegar
  2. jealousy (in love rivalry)

Etymology & Origin

醋

ideographicAged 昔 wine 酉; wine gone sour

Decomposition: ⿰酉昔 (layout: left-right)

Components:酉structural昔structural

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
吃醋chī cùto feel jealous (esp. because of a rival in love or affection)
添油加醋tiān yóu jiā cùlit. to add oil and vinegar (idiom)
醋意cù yìjealousy (in love rivalry)
醋栗cù lìgooseberry
醋酸cù suānacetic acid (CH3COOH)
油盐酱醋yóu yán jiàng cùlit. oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar (idiom)
半瓶醋bàn píng cùdabbler
醋海生波cù hǎi shēng bōlit. waves on a sea of vinegar
争风吃醋zhēng fēng chī cùto rival sb for the affection of a man or woman
半瓶子醋bàn píng zi cùsee 半瓶醋[ban4 ping2 cu4]
醋劲儿cù jìn rerhua variant of 醋勁|醋劲[cu4 jin4]
加油添醋jiā yóu tiān cùto add interest (to a story)
白醋bái cùwhite vinegar
醋坛子cù tán zivinegar jar
糖醋里脊táng cù lǐ jǐsweet and sour pork
30
Total compounds
33
As first character
43
As last character
23
As middle character

醋 appears in 30 compound words: 33 as the first character, 43 as the last, and 23 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 醋 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

吃chī
0.5724,008 co-occurrences
酸suān
0.5564,260 co-occurrences
酱jiàng
0.541534 co-occurrences
糖táng
0.4791,284 co-occurrences
蒜suàn
0.467180 co-occurrences
酿niàng
0.462264 co-occurrences
汁zhī
0.462402 co-occurrences
溜liū
0.446258 co-occurrences
添tiān
0.444672 co-occurrences
蘸zhàn
0.43742 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

加油添醋jiā yóu tiān cùHSK 6+

to add interest (to a story); to sex up

phrase
糖醋里脊táng cù lǐ jǐHSK 7+

sweet and sour pork

phrase
添油加醋tiānyóujiācùHSK 6+

to add color and emphasis to (a narration); to exaggerate

phrase
油盐酱醋yóuyánjiàngcùHSK 6+

oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar; cooking ingredients; daily necessities

noun
争风吃醋zhēngfēngchīcùHSK 6+

to vie jealously for someone's affection; to be green with envy

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了醋字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le cù zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "醋" in the dictionary.

Hk01.comApr 2026

...司店同期离场 尖沙咀十和田总店:潜心钻研醋饭温度

. . . sī diàn tóng qī lí chǎng jiān shā jǔ shí hé tián zǒng diàn : qián xīn zuān yán cù fàn wēn dù

Tatoeba

今天晚上吃糖醋排骨。

Jīntiān wǎnshang chī tángcù páigǔ.

I will eat sweet and sour spareribs tonight.

Tatoeba

用拧檬汁代替醋。

Yòng níng méng zhī dàitì cù.

Use lemon juice instead of vinegar.

Character Family

酉 Radical Family — Characters sharing the wine radical

酣hān酱jiàng酷kù配pèi酸suān醒xǐng酗xù酝yùn酌zhuó醉zuì

Related Characters

配pèi酸suān醒xǐng醉zuì酱jiàng酷kù酌zhuó酗xù酝yùn酣hān

Homophones — Characters pronounced cù

粗cū促cù簇cù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 醋 (cù) mean in Chinese?
醋 (cù) primarily means "vinegar." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2783 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 醋 have?
醋 is written with 15 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 醋?
The radical associated with 醋 is 酉 (wine). This radical appears in many characters related to wine.
What are the components of 醋?
醋 is composed of: 酉 (structural), 昔 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰酉昔 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 醋?
Common words with 醋 include: 吃醋 (chī cù, "to feel jealous (esp. because of a rival in love or affection)"); 添油加醋 (tiān yóu jiā cù, "lit. to add oil and vinegar (idiom)"); 醋意 (cù yì, "jealousy (in love rivalry)"); 醋栗 (cù lì, "gooseberry"); 醋酸 (cù suān, "acetic acid (CH3COOH)"). There are over 30 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 醋 (cù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cù: 粗 ((of sth long) wide), 促 ((bound form) of short duration), 簇 ((bound form) to cluster). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 醋 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 醋 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.