诵 (sòng): to read aloud, to recite

诵 (sòng) is a Chinese character meaning “to read aloud.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 讠 (semantic) and 甬 (phonetic). It ranks #2456 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 诵 speech. Its radical form 讠 (speech) appears in many related characters such as 认 (rèn, to recognize, to admit), 记 (jì, to remember, to record), 识 (shí, to know, knowledge).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 讠 speech9 strokesFrequency #2456讠 semantic甬 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to read aloud
  2. to recite

Etymology & Origin

诵

pictophoneticspeech

Decomposition: ⿰讠甬 (layout: left-right)

Components:讠semantic甬phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
背诵bèi sòngto recite
朗诵lǎng sòngto read aloud with expression
诵读sòng dúto read aloud
吟诵yín sòngto read aloud
诵经sòng jīngto chant the sutras
念诵niàn sòngto read out
传诵chuán sòngwidely known
诵读困难症sòng dú kùn nan zhèngdyslexia
默诵佛号mò sòng fó hàoto chant the names of Buddha
告诵gào sòngto tell
联诵lián sòngliaison (in phonetics) (loanword)
李诵lǐ sòngLi Song, personal name of eleventh Tang emperor Shunzong 順宗|顺宗[Shun4 zong1] (761-806), reigned 805-806
12
Total compounds
25
As first character
67
As last character
8
As middle character

诵 appears in 12 compound words: 25 as the first character, 67 as the last, and 8 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 诵 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

吟yín
0.547894 co-occurrences
朗lǎng
0.5264,380 co-occurrences
读dòu
0.5233,102 co-occurrences
祷dǎo
0.505408 co-occurrences
诗shī
0.4881,686 co-occurrences
背bèi
0.4652,448 co-occurrences
嘛ma
0.435210 co-occurrences
经jīng
0.4353,732 co-occurrences
讽fěng
0.412132 co-occurrences
咏yǒng
0.405102 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

诵语是交流思想的重要工具。

sòng yǔ shì jiāo liú sī xiǎng de chóng yāo gōng jù .

Recitation is an important tool for communicating ideas.

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甘榜双溪勿刹清真寺开斋节诵经仪式圆满举行

gān bǎng shuāng xī wù chà qīng zhēn sì kāi zhāi jié sòng jīng yí shì yuán mǎn jǔ háng

Tatoeba

他的女儿能背诵很多诗。

Tā de nǚ'ér néng bèisòng hěn duō shī.

His daughter is able to recite a lot of poems.

Tatoeba

我最讨厌背诵课文了。

Wǒ zuì tǎoyàn bèisòng kèwén le.

What I hate most of all is having to recite texts from memory.

Character Family

讠 Radical Family — Characters sharing the speech radical

谤bàng诧chà诚chéng词cí诞dàn调diào谍dié订dìng讹é访fǎng

Related Characters

认rèn记jì识shí诉sù试shì话huà语yǔ说shuō请qǐng读dòu

Homophones — Characters pronounced sòng

松sōng耸sǒng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 诵 (sòng) mean in Chinese?
诵 (sòng) primarily means "to read aloud." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2456 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 诵 and 痛?
诵 (sòng) and 痛 (tòng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 讠 vs 疒 (same 甬 component).
How many strokes does 诵 have?
诵 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 诵?
The radical associated with 诵 is 讠 (speech). This radical appears in many characters related to speech.
What are the components of 诵?
诵 is composed of: 讠 (semantic), 甬 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰讠甬 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 诵?
Common words with 诵 include: 背诵 (bèi sòng, "to recite"); 朗诵 (lǎng sòng, "to read aloud with expression"); 诵读 (sòng dú, "to read aloud"); 吟诵 (yín sòng, "to read aloud"); 诵经 (sòng jīng, "to chant the sutras"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 诵 (sòng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation sòng: 松 (pine, loose), 耸 (to excite). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 诵 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 诵 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 诵 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

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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.