沈 (shěn): surname Shen, (literary) juice

沈 (shěn) is a Chinese character meaning “(literary) juice.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 冘 (phonetic). It ranks #3652 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 沈 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 河 (hé, river), 海 (hǎi, sea), 洋 (yáng, ocean).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. surname Shen
  2. (literary) juice

Etymology & Origin

沈

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵冘 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
沈北新区shěn běi xīn qūShenbei New District, a district of Shenyang City 瀋陽市|沈阳市, Liaoning
沈国放shěn guó fàngShen Guofang (1952-), PRC assistant minister of foreign affairs (2003-2005)
沈从文shěn cóng wénShen Congwen (1902-1988), novelist
沈河区shěn hé qūShenhe, a district of Shenyang City 瀋陽市|沈阳市, Liaoning
沈阳市shěn yáng shìShenyang, sub-provincial city and capital of Liaoning Province 遼寧省|辽宁省
沈阳故宫shěn yáng gù gōngMukden Palace, aka Shenyang Imperial Palace, the main imperial palace during the early years of the Qing dynasty (162...
沈约shěn yuēShen Yue (441-513), writer and historian during Liang of Southern dynasties 南朝梁, compiler of History of Song of the S...
沈复shěn fùShen Fu (1763-c. 1810), Qing dynasty writer, author of Six Records of a Floating Life 浮生六記|浮生六记
沈北shěn běisee 沈北新區|沈北新区
沈阳proper-nounshěn yángsee 瀋陽市|沈阳市
沈河shěn hésee 瀋河區|沈河区
辽沈战役liáo shěn zhàn yìLiaoshen Campaign (Sep-Nov 1948), the first of the three major campaigns by the People's Liberation Army near the end...
沈括shěn kuòShen Kuo (1031-1095), Chinese polymath, scientist and statesman of Song dynasty, author of Dream Pool Essays 夢溪筆談|梦溪笔...
沈丘县shěn qiū xiànShenqiu, a county in Zhoukou City 周口市, Henan
沈丘shěn qiūsee 沈丘縣|沈丘县
17
Total compounds
94
As first character
0
As last character
6
As middle character

沈 appears in 17 compound words: 94 as the first character, 0 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 沈 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

琳lín
0.59313 co-occurrences
玉yù
0.49313 co-occurrences
腾téng
0.49012 co-occurrences
伯bó
0.46613 co-occurrences
洋yáng
0.41414 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这条沈流经三个省份,滋养了沿岸的农田。

zhè tiáo Shěn liú jīng sān gè shěng fèn , zī yǎng le yán àn de nóng tián .

The Shen River flows through three provinces, nourishing the farmland along its banks.

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

全国人大代表沈昌健:泥土里育“金种” 田埂上传“农声”

quán guó rén dà dài biǎo Shěn chāng jiàn : ní tǔ lǐ yù jīn zhǒng tián 埂 shàng chuán nóng shēng

Shen Changjian, a National People's Congress deputy: Cultivating "golden seeds" in the soil and sharing the "voices of farmers" from the fields

風傳媒Feb 2026

...美股为何如此诡异?七巨头陷入困局,原本死沈的消费股却大涨!剧烈震荡已不远?

. . . měi gǔ wéi hé rú cǐ guǐ yì ? qī jù tóu xiàn rù kùn jú , yuán běn sǐ Shěn de xiāo fèi gǔ què dà zhǎng ! jù liè zhèn dàng yǐ bù yuǎn ?

...Why Are U.S. Stocks So Unpredictable? The "Big Seven" Are in a Bind, Yet Consumer Stocks—Once Stagnant—Are Soaring! Is a Major Market Turmoil Just Around the Corner?

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Feb 2026

沈桂贤:饮酒养猪不是问题!砂拉越多元包容才...

Shěn guì xián : yǐn jiǔ yǎng zhū bù shì wèn tí ! shā lā yuè duō yuán bāo róng cái . . .

Shen Guixian: Drinking and raising pigs isn’t a problem! It’s Sarawak’s diversity and inclusivity that...

百度新闻Feb 2026

在春晚与沈腾马丽同框的机器人 在全国100多个地方...

zài chūn wǎn yǔ Shěn téng mǎ lí tóng kuàng de jī qì rén zài quán guó 1 0 0 duō gè dì fāng . . .

The robot that appeared alongside Shen Teng and Ma Li on the Spring Festival Gala has been spotted in over 100 locations across the country...

百度新闻Feb 2026

与沈腾马丽一起“搭戏”的机器人,还藏着这样的...

yǔ Shěn téng mǎ lí yī qǐ dā xì de jī qì rén , hái zàng zhe zhè yàng de . . .

The robot that "co-stars" with Shen Teng and Ma Li also has a secret...

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 沈 (shěn) mean in Chinese?
沈 (shěn) primarily means "(literary) juice." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3652 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 沈 and 枕?
沈 (shěn) and 枕 (zhěn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 氵 vs 木 (same 冘 component).
How many strokes does 沈 have?
沈 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 沈?
The radical associated with 沈 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 沈?
沈 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 冘 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵冘 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 沈?
Common words with 沈 include: 沈北新区 (shěn běi xīn qū, "Shenbei New District, a district of Shenyang City 瀋陽市|沈阳市, Liaoning"); 沈国放 (shěn guó fàng, "Shen Guofang (1952-), PRC assistant minister of foreign affairs (2003-2005)"); 沈从文 (shěn cóng wén, "Shen Congwen (1902-1988), novelist"); 沈河区 (shěn hé qū, "Shenhe, a district of Shenyang City 瀋陽市|沈阳市, Liaoning"); 沈阳市 (shěn yáng shì, "Shenyang, sub-provincial city and capital of Liaoning Province 遼寧省|辽宁省"). There are over 17 compound words containing this character.
Is 沈 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 沈 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 沈 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.