冻 (dòng): to freeze, to feel very cold, aspic or jelly

冻 (dòng) is a Chinese character meaning “to freeze.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 冫 (semantic) and 东 (phonetic). It ranks #2087 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 冻 ice. Its radical form 冫 (ice) appears in many related characters such as 冷 (lěng, cold), 净 (jìng, clean), 准 (zhǔn, to allow).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to freeze
  2. to feel very cold
  3. aspic or jelly

Etymology & Origin

冻

pictophoneticice

Decomposition: ⿰冫东 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
冷冻verblěng dòngto freeze (food etc)
冻死verbdòng sǐto freeze to death
果冻nounguǒ dònggelatin dessert
冰冻verbbīng dòngto freeze
冻结verbdòng jiéto freeze (water etc)
冻僵verbdòng jiāngfrozen stiff
解冻verbjiě dòngto melt
速冻verbsù dòngto quick-freeze
冻伤verbdòng shāngfrostbite
防冻verbfáng dòngantifreeze
冷冻库nounlěng dòng kùfreezer room
霜冻nounshuāng dòngfrost
冻土noundòng tǔfrozen earth
天寒地冻phrasetiān hán dì dòng(idiom) bitterly cold
肉冻nounròu dòngaspic
50
Total compounds
42
As first character
36
As last character
22
As middle character

冻 appears in 50 compound words: 42 as the first character, 36 as the last, and 22 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 冻 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

症zhèng
0.62261 co-occurrences
馁něi
0.58264 co-occurrences
霜shuāng
0.577628 co-occurrences
冷lěng
0.5551,862 co-occurrences
结jié
0.5363,524 co-occurrences
冰bīng
0.5031,150 co-occurrences
饿è
0.484120 co-occurrences
渐jiàn
0.428109 co-occurrences
饺jiǎo
0.42818 co-occurrences
雹báo
0.42022 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

挨饿受冻ái è shòu dòngHSK 7+

(idiom) to go cold and hungry

phrase
天寒地冻tiānhándìdòngHSK 5+

to be very cold

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了冻字的详细解释。

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

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

三立新聞網Feb 2026

田中千绘恋情曾掀波 冻卵细节首次曝光

tián zhōng qiān huì liàn qíng céng xiān bō dòng luǎn xì jié shǒu cì pù guāng

Chie Tanaka's love affair once made waves, and the details of egg freezing were exposed for the first time

中時新聞網Feb 2026

知名餐厅女员工陈尸冷冻库 业者深夜发声明回应

zhī míng cān tīng nǚ yuán gōng chén shī lěng dòng kù yè zhě shēn yè fā shēng míng huí yīng

A well-known restaurant female employee Chen Shi freezer issued a statement late at night in response

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

首相考虑解冻军队采购资金 确保武装部队行动不受影响

shǒu xiāng kǎo lǜ jiě dòng jūn duì cǎi gòu zī jīn què bǎo wǔ zhuāng bù duì háng dòng bù shòu yǐng xiǎng

The prime minister considered unfreezing military procurement funds to ensure that armed forces operations were not affected

三立新聞網Feb 2026

移植心脏运送遭干冰冻坏 男童苦撑2月亡

yí zhí xīn zāng yùn sòng zāo gān bīng dòng huài nán tóng kǔ chēng 2 yuè wáng

The transplanted heart was damaged by dry ice and the boy died in February

Hk01.comFeb 2026

钟柔美终于解冻获过百粉丝支持 忠粉力撑:唔觉得系咩好大...

zhōng róu měi zhōng yú jiě dòng huò guò bǎi fěn sī zhī chí zhōng fěn lì chēng : 唔 jué dé xì 咩 hǎo dà . . .

Zhong Roumei finally thawed and received the support of more than 100 fans, loyal fans: I don't think it's a big deal...

Tatoeba

我的手指冻僵了,以至于无法弹钢琴了。

Wǒ de shǒuzhǐ dòngjiāng le, yǐzhìyú wúfǎ tán gāngqín le.

My fingers are so numb with cold that I can't play the piano.

Tatoeba

地上覆盖着积雪,冻成了又硬又厚的壳。

Dìshang fùgài zhe jīxuě, dòng chéngle yòu yìng yòu hòu de qiào.

The snow lay on the ground, frozen into a thick, hard crust.

Tatoeba

冰冻三尺,非一日之寒。

Bīngdòngsānchǐ, fēiyīrìzhīhán.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

Tatoeba

我最喜欢吃葡萄果冻。

Wǒ zuì xǐhuan chī pútao guǒdòng.

I like grape jelly best.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 冫 (ice) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced dòng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 冻 (dòng) mean in Chinese?
冻 (dòng) primarily means "to freeze." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2087 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 冻 and 热?
冻 (dòng) and 热 (rè) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 冻 (cold) vs 热 (hot).
How many strokes does 冻 have?
冻 is written with 7 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 冻?
The radical associated with 冻 is 冫 (ice). This radical appears in many characters related to ice.
What are the components of 冻?
冻 is composed of: 冫 (semantic), 东 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰冫东 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 冻?
Common words with 冻 include: 冷冻 (lěng dòng, "to freeze (food etc)"); 冻死 (dòng sǐ, "to freeze to death"); 果冻 (guǒ dòng, "gelatin dessert"); 冰冻 (bīng dòng, "to freeze"); 冻结 (dòng jié, "to freeze (water etc)"). There are over 50 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 冻 (dòng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dòng: 栋 (classifier for houses or buildings), 动 ((of sth) to move), 东 (east), 懂 (to understand), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 冻 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 冻 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 冻 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.