(tiǎn): to lick, to lap

(tiǎn) is a Chinese character meaning “to lick.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2884 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, tongue. Its radical form (tongue) appears in many related characters such as (shū, to stretch), (shě, to give up), (shé, tongue).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to lick
  2. to lap

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetictongue

Decomposition: ⿰舌忝 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
tiǎn yīnto perform cunnilingus
tiǎn gǒu(neologism c. 2018) (slang) simp
tiǎn pì guto kiss sb's ass
tiǎn gānganilingus
tiǎn shìto lick
tiǎn shǔnto lick and suck
6
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 6 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

shì
0.85612 co-occurrences
suān
0.71412 co-occurrences
绿
0.60910 co-occurrences
yáng
0.60210 co-occurrences
zāo
0.51612 co-occurrences
shé
0.508408 co-occurrences
xuǎn
0.49910 co-occurrences
dài
0.49712 co-occurrences
běi
0.48512 co-occurrences
jué
0.48110 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

xiě hǎo tiǎn zì xū yāo zhǎng wò zhēng què de bǐ huà shùn xù .

To write the character "舔" correctly, you need to master the proper stroke order.

Hk01.comApr 2026

木村拓哉形象大崩坏?拍片“伸长舌食”用餐 网友正反意见闹翻

mù cūn tuò 哉 xíng xiàng dà bēng huài ? pāi piàn shēn cháng shé tiǎn shí yòng cān wǎng yǒu zhèng fǎn yì jiàn nào fān

ZaobaoApr 2026

吸管”风波后业者加强卫生防范 受访民众:...

tiǎn xī guǎn fēng bō hòu yè zhě jiā qiáng wèi shēng fáng fàn shòu fǎng mín zhòng : . . .

Hk01.comFeb 2026

猫咪毛前美如画 毛后竟判若两猫?崩坏反差让...

māo 咪 tiǎn máo qián měi rú huà tiǎn máo hòu jìng pàn ruò liǎng māo ? bēng huài fǎn chā ràng . . .

The cat is picturesque before licking its fur, and after licking its fur, it is like two cats? The collapse contrast makes...

中時新聞網Feb 2026

北洋军后代对决蒋氏后代? 遭酸绿为选北市长 贾永婕发声了

běi yáng jūn hòu dài duì jué 蒋 shì hòu dài ? zāo suān tiǎn lǜ wéi xuǎn běi shì cháng gǔ yǒng 婕 fā shēng le

The descendants of the Beiyang Army vs. the descendants of the Jiang family? Jia Yongjie spoke out for the election of the mayor of Beijing

Tatoeba

生活就像是仙人掌上的蜂蜜。

Shēnghuó jiù xiàng shì tiǎn xiānrénzhǎng shàng de fēngmì.

Life is like licking honey off a cactus.

Tatoeba

亲吻一个抽烟的人就像在烟灰缸。

Qīnwěn yī gè chōuyān de rén jiù xiàng zài tiǎn yānhuīgāng.

Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.

Tatoeba

其他人已经干净锅底了。

Qítā rén yǐjīng tiǎn gānjìng guō dǐ le.

The others have already licked the bottom of the pot.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the tongue radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced tiǎn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 舔 (tiǎn) mean in Chinese?
舔 (tiǎn) primarily means "to lick." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2884 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 舔 have?
舔 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 舔?
The radical associated with 舔 is 舌 (tongue). This radical appears in many characters related to tongue.
What are the components of 舔?
舔 is composed of: 舌 (semantic), 忝 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰舌忝 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 舔?
Common words with 舔 include: 舔阴 (tiǎn yīn, "to perform cunnilingus"); 舔狗 (tiǎn gǒu, "(neologism c. 2018) (slang) simp"); 舔屁股 (tiǎn pì gu, "to kiss sb's ass"); 舔肛 (tiǎn gāng, "anilingus"); 舔舐 (tiǎn shì, "to lick"). There are over 6 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 舔 (tiǎn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tiǎn: 添 (to add), 天 (day), 田 (field), 甜 (sweet), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 舔 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 舔 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.