涮 (shuàn): to rinse, to trick, to fool sb

涮 (shuàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to rinse.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 刷 (phonetic). It ranks #2997 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 涮 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 rinse
  2. to trick
  3. to fool sb

Etymology & Origin

涮

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵刷 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
开涮verbkāi shuàn(coll.) to make fun of
涮锅子verbshuàn guō zito eat hot pot
涮羊肉shuàn yáng ròuinstant-boiled mutton
涮火锅shuàn huǒ guōsee 涮鍋子|涮锅子
涮涮锅nounshuàn shuàn guōshabu-shabu (Japanese-style hot pot)
5
Total compounds
80
As first character
20
As last character
0
As middle character

涮 appears in 5 compound words: 80 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 0 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 涮 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

辣là
0.51270 co-occurrences
锅guō
0.50440 co-occurrences
羊yáng
0.48194 co-occurrences
肉ròu
0.476134 co-occurrences
匙chí
0.44420 co-occurrences
烤kǎo
0.42918 co-occurrences
煮zhǔ
0.42318 co-occurrences
牛niú
0.42078 co-occurrences
洗xǐ
0.37724 co-occurrences
鼻bí
0.37316 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这条涮流经三个省份,滋养了沿岸的农田。

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

This river flows through three provinces, nourishing the farmland along its banks.

少数派Aug 2026

到了饭馆后才发现原来就在第一天晚饭绿府涮肉的旁边,本身是一个 KTV,可以点烤串吃。

dào le fàn guǎn hòu cái fā xiàn yuán lái jiù zài dì yī tiān wǎn fàn lǜ fǔ shuàn ròu de páng biān , běn shēn shì yī gè K T V , kě yǐ diǎn kǎo chuàn chī .

When we got to the restaurant, we realized it was right next to Lvfu Hot Pot, where we’d had dinner on the first night. It’s actually a KTV where you can order grilled skewers.

中国新闻网·生活May 2026

火锅汤:涮过食材后别再喝 很多人吃火锅时喜欢喝菌菇、番茄等锅底的汤,认为养生又健康。

huǒ guō tāng : shuàn guò shí cái hòu bié zài hē hěn duō rén chī huǒ guō shí xǐ huān hē jūn gū , fān jiā děng guō de de tāng , rèn wéi yǎng shēng yòu jiàn kāng .

Hot Pot Broth: Don’t Drink It After Cooking the Ingredients. Many people enjoy drinking the broth—made with mushrooms, tomatoes, and other ingredients—when eating hot pot, believing it to be nourishing and healthy.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced shuàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 涮 (shuàn) mean in Chinese?
涮 (shuàn) primarily means "to rinse." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2997 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 涮 have?
涮 is written with 11 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 涮?
The radical associated with 涮 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 涮?
涮 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 刷 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵刷 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 涮?
Common words with 涮 include: 开涮 (kāi shuàn, "(coll.) to make fun of"); 涮锅子 (shuàn guō zi, "to eat hot pot"); 涮羊肉 (shuàn yáng ròu, "instant-boiled mutton"); 涮火锅 (shuàn huǒ guō, "see 涮鍋子|涮锅子"); 涮涮锅 (shuàn shuàn guō, "shabu-shabu (Japanese-style hot pot)"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 涮 (shuàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shuàn: 栓 (bottle stopper), 拴 (to tie up). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 涮 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 涮 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 涮 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.