瞪 (dèng): to stare

瞪 (dèng) is a Chinese character meaning “to stare.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 目 (semantic) and 登 (phonetic). It ranks #2017 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 瞪 eye. Its radical form 目 (eye) appears in many related characters such as 看 (kàn, to look, to see), 真 (zhēn, really), 着 (zhe, -ing, to wear).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 目 eye17 strokesFrequency #2017目 semantic登 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to stare

Etymology & Origin

瞪

pictophoneticeye

Decomposition: ⿰目登 (layout: left-right)

Components:目semantic登phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
目瞪口呆mù dèng kǒu dāi(idiom) dumbstruck
瞪眼dèng yǎnto open one's eyes wide
干瞪眼gān dèng yǎnto watch helplessly
吹胡子瞪眼chuī hú zi dèng yǎnto get angry
大眼瞪小眼dà yǎn dèng xiǎo yǎn(idiom) to look at each other, not knowing what to do
直眉瞪眼zhí méi dèng yǎnto stare angrily or vacantly
瞪鞋摇滚dèng xié yáo gǔnshoegaze (music genre)
直瞪瞪zhí dèng dèngto stare blankly
迷瞪mí dèngpuzzled
瞪羚dèng línggazelle
10
Total compounds
30
As first character
10
As last character
60
As middle character

瞪 appears in 10 compound words: 30 as the first character, 10 as the last, and 60 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 瞪 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

呆dāi
0.649892 co-occurrences
眼yǎn
0.482981 co-occurrences
狠hěn
0.481114 co-occurrences
睛jīng
0.462198 co-occurrences
鞋xié
0.428126 co-occurrences
目mù
0.3671,036 co-occurrences
口kǒu
0.361904 co-occurrences
号hào
0.348474 co-occurrences
怒nù
0.34472 co-occurrences
鹿lù
0.33772 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

目瞪口呆mùdèngkǒudāiHSK 7+

stupefied; dumbstruck

phrase
直眉瞪眼zhí méi dèng yǎnHSK 7+

to stare angrily or vacantly

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他瞪大了眼睛，不敢相信眼前发生的一切。

Tā dèng dà le yǎnjing, bù gǎn xiāngxìn yǎnqián fāshēng de yíqiè.

He stared with wide eyes, unable to believe what was happening before him.

Tatoeba

汤姆没有瞪着玛丽。

Tāngmǔ méiyǒu dèng zhe Mǎlì.

Tom wasn't staring at Mary.

Tatoeba

说好要瞪眼比赛的呀！

Shuōhǎo yào dèngyǎn bǐsài de ya!

I said we're doing a staring contest!

Tatoeba

他们惊得目瞪口呆。

Tāmen jīng de mùdèng-kǒudāi.

They were left speechless.

Tatoeba

问她问题的时候她冷冷地瞪了我一眼。

Wèn tā wèntí de shíhou tā lěnglěng de dèng le wǒ yīyǎn.

When I asked her a question, she gave me a cold look.

Tatoeba

她48岁怀上了孩子，所有人都目瞪口呆。

Tā 48 suì huái shàng le háizi, suǒyǒu rén dōu mùdèngkǒudāi.

Everyone was just flabbergasted that she was able to get pregnant at 48.

Tatoeba

珍的男朋友一口气把整个巧克力蛋糕吃得一干二净，把珍看得目瞪口呆。

Zhēn de nánpéngyou yīkǒuqì bǎ zhěnggè qiǎokèlì dàngāo chī de yīgān'èrjìng, bǎ zhēn kàn de mùdèngkǒudāi.

Jane could not believe it when her date polished off an entire chocolate cake.

Character Family

目 Radical Family — Characters sharing the eye radical

睬cǎi瞅chǒu盯dīng督dū睹dǔ盹dǔn睛jīng眶kuàng睐lài瞒mán

Related Characters

看kàn真zhēn着zhe睡shuì觉jué目mù直zhí相xiāng省shěng眼yǎn

Homophones — Characters pronounced dèng

蹬dēng邓dèng凳dèng灯dēng登dēng等děng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 瞪 (dèng) mean in Chinese?
瞪 (dèng) primarily means "to stare." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2017 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 瞪 and 澄?
瞪 (dèng) and 澄 (chéng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 目 vs 氵 (same 登 component).
How many strokes does 瞪 have?
瞪 is written with 17 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 瞪?
The radical associated with 瞪 is 目 (eye). This radical appears in many characters related to eye.
What are the components of 瞪?
瞪 is composed of: 目 (semantic), 登 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰目登 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 瞪?
Common words with 瞪 include: 目瞪口呆 (mù dèng kǒu dāi, "(idiom) dumbstruck"); 瞪眼 (dèng yǎn, "to open one's eyes wide"); 干瞪眼 (gān dèng yǎn, "to watch helplessly"); 吹胡子瞪眼 (chuī hú zi dèng yǎn, "to get angry"); 大眼瞪小眼 (dà yǎn dèng xiǎo yǎn, "(idiom) to look at each other, not knowing what to do"). There are over 10 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 瞪 (dèng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dèng: 蹬 (to step on), 邓 (surname Deng), 凳 (bench), 灯 (lamp, light), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 瞪 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 瞪 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.