涤 (dí): to wash, to cleanse

涤 (dí) is a Chinese character meaning “to wash.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 条 (phonetic). It ranks #2845 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 涤 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to wash
  2. to cleanse

Etymology & Origin

涤

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵条 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
洗涤verbxǐ díto rinse
洗涤剂nounxǐ dí jìcleaning agent
涤纶noundí lúnpolyester fiber
荡涤dàng díto clean up
涤荡verbdí dàngto wash off
洗涤器xǐ dí qìwashing appliance
合成洗涤剂hé chéng xǐ dí jìsynthetic detergent
涤罪所dí zuì suǒpurgatory (religion)
洗涤间xǐ dí jiānwashroom
洗涤机xǐ dí jīwasher
耐洗涤性nài xǐ dí xìngwashing or color fastness
涤去dí qùto wash off
洗涤灵nounxǐ dí língdishwashing liquid
清涤verbqīng díto rinse
涤除dí chúto wash away
28
Total compounds
46
As first character
21
As last character
32
As middle character

涤 appears in 28 compound words: 46 as the first character, 21 as the last, and 32 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 涤 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

洗xǐ
0.5811,123 co-occurrences
剂jì
0.522262 co-occurrences
燥zào
0.46158 co-occurrences
荡dàng
0.45048 co-occurrences
滤lǜ
0.43934 co-occurrences
淀diàn
0.41526 co-occurrences
烦fán
0.41218 co-occurrences
棉mián
0.40036 co-occurrences
苛kē
0.39614 co-occurrences
尘chén
0.39618 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

清晨的涤面波光粼粼,倒映着岸边的柳树。

qīng chén de dí miàn bō guāng 粼 粼 , dǎo yìng zhe àn biān de liǔ shù .

The morning river glistened with ripples, reflecting the willow trees along the shore.

少数派Jul 2026

它的织物面料用的是一种格子型的防泼溅涤纶,稍微带有一点光泽感,看上去还蛮时髦的。

tā de zhī wù miàn liào yòng de shì yī zhǒng gé zǐ xíng de fáng pō jiàn dí 纶 , shāo wēi dài yǒu yī diǎn guāng zé gǎn , kàn shàng qù hái mán shí máo de .

The fabric is a checkered, splash-resistant polyester with a slight sheen, giving it a rather stylish look.

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

《随息居饮食谱》记载:(桃子)补心,活血,生津涤热。

suí xī jū yǐn shí pǔ jì zài : ( táo zǐ ) bǔ xīn , huó xiě , shēng jīn dí rè .

According to *The Dietary Manual of Suixi Ju*: (Peaches) nourish the heart, promote blood circulation, and generate body fluids to clear heat.

中国新闻网·生活Jun 2026

有一部分人跟过敏有关,过敏原往往是像金属,或者与一些洗涤剂里面的刺激性物质有关系。

yǒu yī bù fēn rén gēn guò mǐn yǒu guān , guò mǐn yuán wǎng wǎng shì xiàng jīn shǔ , huò zhě yǔ yī xiē xǐ dí jì lǐ miàn de cì jī xìng wù zhì yǒu guān xì .

For some people, the issue is related to allergies; the allergens are often metals or irritating substances found in detergents.

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Apr 2026

社长观神韵洗涤心灵 愿中国人享有自由

shè cháng guàn shén yùn xǐ dí xīn líng yuàn zhōng guó rén xiǎng yǒu zì yóu

Company President Finds Spiritual Renewal in Shen Yun; Hopes the Chinese People Will Enjoy Freedom

Tatoeba

到洗涤槽去帮忙洗碗盘吧!

Dào xǐdícáo qù bāngmáng xǐwǎn pán ba!

Go and help wash up at the sink!

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced dí

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 涤 (dí) mean in Chinese?
涤 (dí) primarily means "to wash." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2845 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 涤 have?
涤 is written with 10 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 涤?
The radical associated with 涤 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 涤?
涤 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 条 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵条 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 涤?
Common words with 涤 include: 洗涤 (xǐ dí, "to rinse"); 洗涤剂 (xǐ dí jì, "cleaning agent"); 涤纶 (dí lún, "polyester fiber"); 荡涤 (dàng dí, "to clean up"); 涤荡 (dí dàng, "to wash off"). There are over 28 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 涤 (dí)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dí: 地 (earth, ground), 第 ((prefix indicating ordinal number, as in 第六 "sixth")), 帝 (emperor), 低 (low), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 涤 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 涤 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 涤 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

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.