洒 (sǎ): to sprinkle, to spray, to spill

洒 (sǎ) is a Chinese character meaning “to sprinkle.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 西 (phonetic). It ranks #2226 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 洒 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 sprinkle
  2. to spray
  3. to spill

Etymology & Origin

洒

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵西 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
潇洒adjectivexiāo sǎconfident and at ease
喷洒verbpēn sǎto spray
挥洒verbhuī sǎto sprinkle
洒满sǎ mǎnto sprinkle over sth
抛洒pāo sǎto drip
洒水车nounsǎ shuǐ chēsprinkler truck
洒脱adjectivesǎ tuofree and at ease
洒水机sǎ shuǐ jīsprinkler
挥洒自如phrasehuī sǎ zì rú(idiom) to do (sth) with great aplomb
洒落verbsǎ luòto fall downward in a scattered, lightly sprinkled manner (as light, petals, leaves etc)
洋洋洒洒phraseyáng yáng sǎ sǎvoluminous
飘洒piāo sǎsuave
布洒器bù sǎ qìdisperser
洒家pronounsǎ jiā(archaic) I
洒水verbsǎ shuǐto sprinkle
23
Total compounds
39
As first character
39
As last character
22
As middle character

洒 appears in 23 compound words: 39 as the first character, 39 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 洒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

潇xiāo
0.724646 co-occurrences
喷pēn
0.562504 co-occurrences
泪lèi
0.548172 co-occurrences
泼pō
0.538136 co-occurrences
抛pāo
0.484104 co-occurrences
扫sǎo
0.480132 co-occurrences
飘piāo
0.47962 co-occurrences
脱tuō
0.472272 co-occurrences
溅jiàn
0.40710 co-occurrences
尘chén
0.38726 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

挥洒自如huīsǎzìrúHSK 5+

to write or paint without constraint; to be skilful in writing, calligraphy, or painting

phrase
洋洋洒洒yángyángsǎsǎHSK 5+

at great length; voluminous

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

清晨的洒面波光粼粼,倒映着岸边的柳树。

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

The early morning sun glistens on the water's surface, reflecting the willow trees along the shore.

SmzdmApr 2026

潇洒哥_养ss版的微博视频

xiāo sǎ gē yǎng s s bǎn de wēi bó shì pín

Wide-Eyed Guy_Weibo Video (SS Edition)

It之家Apr 2026

...测驾驶体验,小鹏汽车智驾舒适度评测软件“洒了么”正式上线

. . . cè jià shǐ tǐ yàn , xiǎo péng qì chē zhì jià shū shì dù píng cè ruǎn jiàn sǎ le má zhèng shì shàng xiàn

...To evaluate the driving experience, Xpeng Motors’ autonomous driving comfort assessment app “Sha Le Mo” has officially launched

LtnApr 2026

黄阿玛下班了!新人“啤下组织”接棒大洒币 青年冲剧场最高回馈300点不限次数

huáng ā mǎ xià bān le ! xīn rén pí xià zǔ zhī jiē bàng dà sǎ bì qīng nián chōng jù chǎng zuì gāo huí kuì 3 0 0 diǎn bù xiàn cì shǔ

Huang Ama is off duty! The new "Beer Organization" is taking over and giving away coins left and right. Young people rushing to the theater can get up to 300 points in rewards, with no limit on the number of times.

SmzdmMar 2026

无人机喷洒农药:增产利器还是蜜蜂杀手?全网观点大P...

wú rén jī pēn sǎ nóng yào : zēng chǎn lì qì hái shì mì fēng shā shǒu ? quán wǎng guàn diǎn dà P . . .

Drone Pesticide Spraying: A Tool for Increasing Yields or a Threat to Bees? A Roundup of Online Opinions...

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

塑胶袋之乱延烧!国一惊见“透明袋洒整路”:根本炫富 罚款出炉

sù jiāo dài zhī luàn yán shāo ! guó yī jīng jiàn tòu míng dài sǎ zhěng lù : gēn běn xuàn fù fá kuǎn chū lú

The plastic bag chaos continues to spread! A shocking sight on National Highway 1: "Transparent bags scattered all over the road"—a blatant display of wealth. Fines have been announced.

Tatoeba

我在鱼上洒盐和胡椒作调味。

Wǒ zài yú shàng sǎ yán hé hújiāo zuò tiáowèi.

I seasoned the fish with salt and pepper.

Tatoeba

汤姆把饮料洒到了自己身上。

Tāngmǔ bǎ yǐnliào sǎ dào le zìjǐ shēnshang.

Tom spilled his drink on himself.

Tatoeba

烤箱内如有液体洒出,应立即清理,以免留下顽固污渍。

Kǎoxiāng nèi rú yǒu yètǐ sǎ chū, yīng lìjí qīnglǐ, yǐmiǎn liúxià wángù wūzì.

Clean up spills inside the oven as soon as they happen to avoid stubborn stains.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced sǎ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 洒 (sǎ) mean in Chinese?
洒 (sǎ) primarily means "to sprinkle." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2226 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 洒 and 牺?
洒 (sǎ) and 牺 (xī) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 氵 vs 牛 (same 西 component).
How many strokes does 洒 have?
洒 is written with 9 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 洒?
The radical associated with 洒 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 洒?
洒 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 西 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵西 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 洒?
Common words with 洒 include: 潇洒 (xiāo sǎ, "confident and at ease"); 喷洒 (pēn sǎ, "to spray"); 挥洒 (huī sǎ, "to sprinkle"); 洒满 (sǎ mǎn, "to sprinkle over sth"); 抛洒 (pāo sǎ, "to drip"). There are over 23 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 洒 (sǎ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation sǎ: 萨 (used in 菩薩|菩萨), 撒 (to let go). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 洒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 洒 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 洒 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.