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

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

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

Native pronunciation

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticice

Decomposition: ⿰冫东 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
lěng dòngto freeze (food etc)
dòng sǐto freeze to death
guǒ dònggelatin dessert
bīng dòngto freeze
dòng jiéto freeze (water etc)
dòng jiāngfrozen stiff
jiě dòngto melt
sù dòngto quick-freeze
dòng shāngfrostbite
fáng dòngantifreeze
lěng dòng kùfreezer room
shuāng dòngfrost
dòng tǔfrozen earth
tiān hán dì dòng(idiom) bitterly cold
ròu dòngaspic
51
Total compounds
41
As first character
35
As last character
24
As middle character

appears in 51 compound words: 41 as the first character, 35 as the last, and 24 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

něi
0.590192 co-occurrences
shuāng
0.5851,884 co-occurrences
lěng
0.5635,586 co-occurrences
jié
0.53410,576 co-occurrences
bīng
0.5043,454 co-occurrences
饿è
0.491360 co-occurrences
jiǎo
0.43454 co-occurrences
báo
0.42666 co-occurrences
jiāng
0.411186 co-occurrences
āi
0.40596 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

饿ái è shòu dòngHSK 7+

(idiom) to go cold and hungry

phrase
tiānhándìdòngHSK 5+

to be very cold

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

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 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,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

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

Wǒ zuì xǐhuan chī pútao guǒdòng.

I like grape jelly best.

Character Family

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 51 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), 东 (east), 冬 (winter), 董 (director), 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 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.