炖 (dùn): to stew

炖 (dùn) is a Chinese character meaning “to stew.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 火 (semantic) and 屯 (phonetic). It ranks #2972 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 炖 fire. Its radical form 火 (fire) appears in many related characters such as 火 (huǒ, fire), 灯 (dēng, lamp, light), 烟 (yān, smoke).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 火 fire8 strokesFrequency #2972火 semantic屯 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to stew

Etymology & Origin

炖

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿰火屯 (layout: left-right)

Components:火semantic屯phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
清炖qīng dùnto stew meat without seasoning
炖饭dùn fànrisotto
炖肉dùn ròuto stew meat
馄炖hún dùnwonton
炖锅dùn guōstew pot
炖煮dùn zhǔto stew
6
Total compounds
67
As first character
33
As last character
0
As middle character

炖 appears in 6 compound words: 67 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 0 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 炖 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

煮zhǔ
0.593660 co-occurrences
鸡jī
0.531396 co-occurrences
锅guō
0.518204 co-occurrences
汤tāng
0.509366 co-occurrences
肉ròu
0.503810 co-occurrences
菜cài
0.487624 co-occurrences
煌huáng
0.485216 co-occurrences
蘑mó
0.48266 co-occurrences
豆dòu
0.477342 co-occurrences
熏xūn
0.46048 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

炖牛肉需要小火慢炖两个小时，肉质才会软烂入味。

Dùn niúròu xūyào xiǎohuǒ màn dùn liǎng gè xiǎoshí, ròuzhì cáihuì ruǎnlàn rùwèi.

Stewing beef requires low heat for two hours for the meat to become tender and flavorful.

Am730Apr 2026

...定菜单 牛臀肉他他 / 麻辣翼板肉/红酒炖牛肉

. . . dìng cài dān niú tún ròu tā tā má là yì bǎn ròu hóng jiǔ dùn niú ròu

SmzdmMar 2026

七组家常菜制作指南:从快手小炒到硬菜炖煮

qī zǔ jiā cháng cài zhì zuò zhǐ nán : cóng kuài shǒu xiǎo chǎo dào yìng cài dùn zhǔ

StheadlineMar 2026

...8豪叹4斤重长脚蟹加脆皮乳鸽 兼享小菜+炖汤

. . . 8 háo tàn 4 jīn chóng cháng jiǎo xiè jiā cuì pí rǔ gē jiān xiǎng xiǎo cài dùn tāng

...Indulge in an 8-ounce, 4-jin-weight long-legged crab and crispy-skinned squab, along with side dishes and a stewed soup

Tatoeba

汤姆往炖菜里加了西兰花。

Tāngmǔ wǎng dùn cài Lǐjiā le xīlánhuā.

Tom added broccoli to the stew.

Character Family

火 Radical Family — Characters sharing the fire radical

煲bāo焙bèi灿càn炒chǎo炊chuī灯dēng烦fán耿gěng焊hàn烘hōng

Related Characters

火huǒ灯dēng烟yān烦fán炼liàn烧shāo燃rán灰huī灾zāi烂làn

Homophones — Characters pronounced dùn

吨dūn盹dǔn钝dùn顿dùn敦dūn盾dùn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 炖 (dùn) mean in Chinese?
炖 (dùn) primarily means "to stew." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2972 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 炖 and 纯?
炖 (dùn) and 纯 (chún) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 火 vs 纟 (same 屯 component).
How many strokes does 炖 have?
炖 is written with 8 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 炖?
The radical associated with 炖 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 炖?
炖 is composed of: 火 (semantic), 屯 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰火屯 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 炖?
Common words with 炖 include: 清炖 (qīng dùn, "to stew meat without seasoning"); 炖饭 (dùn fàn, "risotto"); 炖肉 (dùn ròu, "to stew meat"); 馄炖 (hún dùn, "wonton"); 炖锅 (dùn guō, "stew pot"). There are over 6 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 炖 (dùn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dùn: 吨 (ton (loanword)), 盹 (doze), 钝 (blunt), 顿 (to stop), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 炖 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 炖 and the traditional form is 燉.

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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.