醛 (quán): aldehyde

醛 (quán) is a Chinese character meaning “aldehyde.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 酉 (semantic) and 荃 (phonetic). It ranks #3976 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 醛 chemical. Its radical form 酉 (wine) appears in many related characters such as 酗 (xù, drunk), 酝 (yùn, to brew), 配 (pèi, to join).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. aldehyde

Etymology & Origin

醛

pictophoneticchemical

Decomposition: ⿰酉荃 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
甲醛nounjiǎ quánformaldehyde (HCHO)
醛基nounquán jīaldehyde group -COH
醛类quán lèi(chemistry) aldehyde
聚甲醛nounjù jiǎ quánpolyformaldehyde (CH2O)n
甘油醛noungān yóu quánglyceraldehyde (CH2O)3
醛固酮nounquán gù tóngaldosterone
丁醛noundīng quánbutyraldehyde
苯甲醛nounběn jiǎ quánbenzaldehyde C6H5CHO, the simplest aromatic aldehyde
醛糖nounquán tángaldose, monosaccharide containing aldehyde group -COH
糠醛kāng quánfurfural (chemistry)
脲醛niào quánurea formaldehyde
酚醛胶fēn quán jiāophenolic resin (used to manufacture bakelite)
乙醛nounyǐ quánacetaldehyde H3CCHO
酚醛fēn quánphenolic aldehyde
丙烯醛nounbǐng xī quánacrolein CH2CHCHO
17
Total compounds
24
As first character
71
As last character
6
As middle character

醛 appears in 17 compound words: 24 as the first character, 71 as the last, and 6 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 醛 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

甲jiǎ
0.69322 co-occurrences
除chú
0.60322 co-occurrences
净jìng
0.56511 co-occurrences
器qì
0.41611 co-occurrences
空kōng
0.37211 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

爱范儿Aug 2026

我国食品安全法与农产品质量安全法禁止将甲醛作为食品加工助剂使用。

wǒ guó shí pǐn ān quán fǎ yǔ nóng chǎn pǐn zhì liàng ān quán fǎ jìn zhǐ jiāng jiǎ quán zuò wéi shí pǐn jiā gōng zhù jì shǐ yòng .

China's Food Safety Law and the Law on the Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products prohibit the use of formaldehyde as a food processing aid.

爱范儿Jun 2026

官方表示,相比上一代材料,综合吸附能力提升 40%,醛类物质吸附能力提升 20%。

guān fāng biǎo shì , xiāng bǐ shàng yī dài cái liào , zōng hé xī fù néng lì tí shēng 4 0 , quán lèi wù zhì xī fù néng lì tí shēng 2 0 .

Officials stated that, compared to the previous generation of materials, overall adsorption capacity has increased by 40%, and the adsorption capacity for aldehydes has increased by 20%.

少数派Jun 2026

这半年基本每天都开着,对于新家除甲醛和日常空气净化的效果都不错。

zhè bàn nián jī běn měi tiān dōu kāi zhe , duì yú xīn jiā chú jiǎ quán hé rì cháng kōng qì jìng huà de xiào guǒ dōu bù cuò .

I've had it running almost every day for the past six months, and it's worked well for removing formaldehyde from my new home and for everyday air purification.

中国新闻网·生活Jun 2026

油烟中的有害物质,如苯并芘、丙烯醛等,存在诱发肺癌的风险。

yóu yān zhōng de yǒu hài wù zhì , rú běn bìng 芘 , bǐng xī quán děng , cún zài yòu fā fèi ái de fēng xiǎn .

Harmful substances in cooking fumes, such as benzo[a]pyrene and acrolein, pose a risk of causing lung cancer.

中国新闻网·生活May 2026

榴莲果肉中含有大量含硫化合物,这类物质会强力抑制人体内乙醛脱氢酶活性。

榴 lián guǒ ròu zhōng hán yǒu dà liàng hán liú huà hé wù , zhè lèi wù zhì huì qiáng lì yì zhì rén tǐ nèi yǐ quán tuō qīng méi huó xìng .

Durian flesh contains large amounts of sulfur-containing compounds, which strongly inhibit the activity of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase in the human body.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 酉 (chemical) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 醛 (quán) mean in Chinese?
醛 (quán) primarily means "aldehyde." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3976 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 醛 have?
醛 is written with 16 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 醛?
The radical associated with 醛 is 酉 (wine). This radical appears in many characters related to wine.
What are the components of 醛?
醛 is composed of: 酉 (semantic), 荃 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰酉荃 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 醛?
Common words with 醛 include: 甲醛 (jiǎ quán, "formaldehyde (HCHO)"); 醛基 (quán jī, "aldehyde group -COH"); 醛类 (quán lèi, "(chemistry) aldehyde"); 聚甲醛 (jù jiǎ quán, "polyformaldehyde (CH2O)n"); 甘油醛 (gān yóu quán, "glyceraldehyde (CH2O)3"). There are over 17 compound words containing this character.
Is 醛 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 醛 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 醛 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.