漱 (shù): to rinse one's mouth with water

漱 (shù) is a Chinese character meaning “to rinse one's mouth with water.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (structural) and 欶 (structural). It ranks #3068 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 漱 to gargle 欶 water 氵; 欶 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 河 (hé, river), 海 (hǎi, sea), 洋 (yáng, ocean).

Native pronunciation
HSK 6Radical: 氵 water14 strokesFrequency #3068氵 structural欶 structural

Definitions

  1. to rinse one's mouth with water

Etymology & Origin

漱

ideographicTo gargle 欶 water 氵; 欶 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰氵欶 (layout: left-right)

Components:氵structural欶structural

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 漱

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
洗漱verbxǐ shùto wash the face and rinse the mouth6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
漱口shù kǒuto rinse one's mouth
漱口水shù kǒu shuǐmouthwash
夏目漱石xià mù shù shíNatsume Sōseki (1867-1916), one of the first modern Japanese novelists
枕石漱流zhěn shí shù liúto live a hermit's life (in seclusion)
漱流shù liúto rinse one's mouth with river water
枕岩漱流zhěn yán shù liúsee 枕石漱流[zhen3 shi2 shu4 liu2]
漱洗shù xǐto rinse the mouth and wash the face
梁漱溟liáng shù míngLiang Shuming (1893-1988), modern philosopher and teacher in the neo-Confucian tradition
9
Total compounds
44
As first character
11
As last character
44
As middle character

漱 appears in 9 compound words: 44 as the first character, 11 as the last, and 44 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 漱 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

饶ráo
0.602930 co-occurrences
石shí
0.4903,210 co-occurrences
洗xǐ
0.487678 co-occurrences
芳fāng
0.465612 co-occurrences
枕zhěn
0.442114 co-occurrences
梁liáng
0.435702 co-occurrences
慕mù
0.414264 co-occurrences
岗gǎng
0.413168 co-occurrences
夏xià
0.412780 co-occurrences
玉yù
0.403528 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

枕石漱流zhěnshíshùliúHSK 6+

to live a secluded and pure life in harmony with nature (often used to describe the lifestyle of a hermit)

phrase
枕岩漱流zhěn yán shù liúHSK 7+

see 枕石漱流[zhen3 shi2 shu4 liu2]

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

站在桥上望去，漱水缓缓向东流去。

zhàn zài qiáo shàng wàng qù , shù shuǐ huǎn huǎn xiàng dōng liú qù .

Standing on the bridge, I watched the Shu River flow gently eastward.

SmzdmApr 2026

外出带漱口水不方便?三款绝佳方案让你随时保持口气...

wài chū dài shù kǒu shuǐ bù fāng biàn ? sān kuǎn jué jiā fāng àn ràng nǐ suí shí bǎo chí kǒu qì . . .

99 健康网Feb 2026

...奶一边做dna的注意事项有哪些?避免使用漱口水清洁口腔吗

. . . nǎi yī biān zuò d n a de zhù yì shì xiàng yǒu nǎ xiē ? bì miǎn shǐ yòng shù kǒu shuǐ qīng jié kǒu qiāng ma

... What are the precautions for making DNA while milking? Avoid using mouthwash to clean your mouth

Character Family

氵 Radical Family — Characters sharing the water radical

池chí海hǎi河hé湖hú江jiāng流liú汤tāng溪xī洋yáng汁zhī

Related Characters

河hé海hǎi洋yáng江jiāng湖hú溪xī流liú池chí汤tāng汁zhī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 漱 (shù) mean in Chinese?
漱 (shù) primarily means "to rinse one's mouth with water." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #3068 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 漱 have?
漱 is written with 14 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 漱?
The radical associated with 漱 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 漱?
漱 is composed of: 氵 (structural), 欶 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵欶 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 漱?
Common words with 漱 include: 漱口 (shù kǒu, "to rinse one's mouth"); 洗漱 (xǐ shù, "to wash the face and rinse the mouth"); 漱口水 (shù kǒu shuǐ, "mouthwash"); 夏目漱石 (xià mù shù shí, "Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916), one of the first modern Japanese novelists"); 枕石漱流 (zhěn shí shù liú, "to live a hermit's life (in seclusion)"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
Is 漱 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 漱 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.