糖 (táng): sugar, sweets, candy

糖 (táng) is a Chinese character meaning “sugar.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 米 (semantic) and 唐 (phonetic). It ranks #1730 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 糖 rice. Its radical form 米 (rice) appears in many related characters such as 米 (mǐ, uncooked rice), 类 (lèi, kind), 精 (jīng, essence).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. sugar
  2. sweets
  3. candy

Etymology & Origin

糖

pictophoneticrice

Decomposition: ⿰米唐 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
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16

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 糖

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
糖果nountáng guǒcandy6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
口香糖nounkǒu xiāng tángchewing gum
糖尿病nountáng niào bìngdiabetes
糖浆nountáng jiāngsyrup
软糖nounruǎn tángsoft candy (gummi candy, gumdrop, jellybean etc)
棒棒糖nounbàng bàng tánglollipop
薄荷糖nounbò he tángmint (confectionery)
蜜糖nounmì tánghoney
泡泡糖nounpào pào tángbubble gum
血糖nounxuè tángblood sugar
乳糖nounrǔ tánglactose
焦糖nounjiāo tángcaramel
糖霜táng shuāngfrosting
低血糖noundī xuè tánghypoglycemia (medicine)
糖衣nountáng yīfrosting or icing (on cakes etc)
蔗糖nounzhè tángcane sugar
100
Total compounds
29
As first character
66
As last character
5
As middle character

糖 appears in 100 compound words: 29 as the first character, 66 as the last, and 5 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 糖 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

尿niào
0.6056,765 co-occurrences
葡pú
0.5614,976 co-occurrences
芋yù
0.55912 co-occurrences
萄táo
0.5594,380 co-occurrences
婿xù
0.55014 co-occurrences
砂shā
0.5282,084 co-occurrences
橘jú
0.52218 co-occurrences
泡pào
0.5182,182 co-occurrences
浆jiāng
0.515853 co-occurrences
棉mián
0.5011,422 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

阿拉伯糖ālābótángHSK 7+

arabinose

noun
氨基葡糖ān jī pú táng

glucosamine (abbr. for 氨基葡萄糖)

phrase
冰糖葫芦bīngtáng húlu

candied fruits on a bamboo skewer, especially Chinese hawthorn

noun
升糖指数shēng táng zhǐ shùHSK 5+

glycemic index

phrase
糖醋里脊táng cù lǐ jǐHSK 7+

sweet and sour pork

phrase
脱氧核糖tuōyǎng hétángHSK 6+

deoxyribose; semen

noun
止咳糖浆zhǐké tángjiāngHSK 5+

cough syrup

noun

Showing 7 of 8 idioms containing 糖.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

糖字由16笔画组成,结构很巧妙。

táng zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character for "sugar" consists of 16 strokes and has a very clever structure.

99 健康网Feb 2026

无糖食品有哪些东西?代糖饼干、无糖豆浆、黑巧...

wú táng shí pǐn yǒu nǎ xiē dōng xī ? dài táng bǐng gān , wú táng dòu jiāng , hēi qiǎo . . .

What are the sugar-free foods? Sugar substitute biscuits, sugar-free soy milk, black chocolate...

99 健康网Feb 2026

麦芽糖醇是无糖食品吗?作为甜味剂被允许用于无糖...

mài yá táng chún shì wú táng shí pǐn ma ? zuò wéi tián wèi jì bèi yǔn xǔ yòng yú wú táng . . .

Is maltitol a sugar free food? As a sweetener is allowed for sugar-free ...

99 健康网Feb 2026

无糖食品真的不含糖吗?国标允许每100克含糖...

wú táng shí pǐn zhēn de bù hán táng ma ? guó biāo yǔn xǔ měi 1 0 0 kè hán táng . . .

Are sugar-free foods really sugar-free? The national standard allows sugar per 100 grams...

99 健康网Feb 2026

无糖的食品有哪些?饮料、糕点、酸奶都有无糖版...

wú táng de shí pǐn yǒu nǎ xiē ? yǐn liào , gāo diǎn , suān nǎi dōu yǒu wú táng bǎn . . .

What are sugar-free foods? Drinks, pastries, yogurts are all sugar-free...

99 健康网Feb 2026

麦芽糖醇属于无糖食品吗?它算不算国标定义的“糖...

mài yá táng chún shǔ yú wú táng shí pǐn ma ? tā suàn bù suàn guó biāo dìng yì de táng . . .

Is maltitol a sugar-free food? Is it considered a "sugar...

Tatoeba

她在嚼口香糖,是吗?

Tā zài jiáo kǒuxiāngtáng, shì ma?

She's chewing gum, isn't she?

Tatoeba

玛丽得糖尿病了,不是吗?

Mǎlì de tángniàobìng le, bùshìma?

Mary is diabetic, isn't she?

Tatoeba

能把枫糖浆递给我吗?

Néng bǎ fēngtáng jiāng dì gěi wǒ ma?

Could you pass me the maple syrup?

Tatoeba

我们需要面粉、砂糖和鸡蛋来做这个蛋糕。

Wǒmen xūyào miànfěn, shātáng hé jīdàn lái zuò zhège dàngāo.

We need flour, sugar and eggs to make this cake.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 米 (rice) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced táng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 糖 (táng) mean in Chinese?
糖 (táng) primarily means "sugar." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1730 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 糖 have?
糖 is written with 16 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 糖?
The radical associated with 糖 is 米 (rice). This radical appears in many characters related to rice.
What are the components of 糖?
糖 is composed of: 米 (semantic), 唐 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰米唐 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 糖?
Common words with 糖 include: 糖果 (táng guǒ, "candy"); 口香糖 (kǒu xiāng táng, "chewing gum"); 糖尿病 (táng niào bìng, "diabetes"); 糖浆 (táng jiāng, "syrup"); 软糖 (ruǎn táng, "soft candy (gummi candy, gumdrop, jellybean etc)"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 糖 (táng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation táng: 塘 (dyke), 溏 (half congealed), 堂 (hall), 唐 (Tang dynasty (618–907)), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 糖 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 糖 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 糖 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.