(shàn): meals

(shàn) is a Chinese character meaning “meals.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2872 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, meat. Its radical form (meat) appears in many related characters such as (ròu, meat), (néng, can), (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. meals

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmeat

Decomposition: ⿰⺼善 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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
shàn shímeals
yòng shànto dine
yào shànmedicinal cuisine
shàn mó shīThermos (brand)
shàn shí xiān wéidietary fiber
yù shàn fángimperial kitchen
6
Total compounds
50
As first character
33
As last character
17
As middle character

appears in 6 compound words: 50 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 17 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.

shí
0.5359,468 co-occurrences
0.4652,346 co-occurrences
yáo
0.42390 co-occurrences
fáng
0.4192,556 co-occurrences
jīng
0.4172,298 co-occurrences
qiàn
0.408222 co-occurrences
chōng
0.4041,254 co-occurrences
yùn
0.40336 co-occurrences
láng
0.3971,578 co-occurrences
diǎn
0.3931,842 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men shàn zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "膳."

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Mar 2026

四川实现校园食监督家长委员会全覆盖

sì chuān shí xiàn jiào yuán shàn shí jiān dū jiā cháng wěi yuán huì quán fù gài

Am730Mar 2026

食纤维补充要循序渐进 高纤食物少食多餐防...

shàn shí qiàn wéi bǔ chōng yāo xún xù jiān jìn gāo qiàn shí wù shǎo shí duō cān fáng . . .

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Mar 2026

四川全省中小学校均已建立校园食监督家长委员会

sì chuān quán shěng zhōng xiǎo xué jiào jūn yǐ jiàn lì jiào yuán shàn shí jiān dū jiā cháng wěi yuán huì

All primary and secondary schools across Sichuan Province have established parent committees to oversee school meals.

The Beijing NewsMar 2026

湖南养堂十周年盛典在云南完美收官

hú nán shàn yǎng táng shí zhōu nián shèng diǎn zài yún nán wán měi shōu guān

Hunan Shanyang Tang’s 10th Anniversary Celebration Concluded Successfully in Yunnan

Tatoeba

您吃了什么样的食?

Nín chī le shénmeyàng de shànshí?

What kind of meal did you eat?

Tatoeba

你要吃多点含食纤维的食物。

Nǐ yào chī duō diǎn hán shànshí xiānwéi de shíwù.

You need to eat more fiber.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced shàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 膳 (shàn) mean in Chinese?
膳 (shàn) primarily means "meals." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2872 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 膳 have?
膳 is written with 18 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 膳?
The radical associated with 膳 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 膳?
膳 is composed of: ⺼ (semantic), 善 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰⺼善 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 膳?
Common words with 膳 include: 膳食 (shàn shí, "meals"); 用膳 (yòng shàn, "to dine"); 药膳 (yào shàn, "medicinal cuisine"); 膳魔师 (shàn mó shī, "Thermos (brand)"); 膳食纤维 (shàn shí xiān wéi, "dietary fiber"). There are over 6 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 膳 (shàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shàn: 山 (mountain), 删 (to delete), 衫 (shirt), 煽 (to fan into a flame), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 膳 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 膳 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.