澡 (zǎo): bath

澡 (zǎo) is a Chinese character meaning “bath.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 喿 (phonetic). It ranks #2560 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 澡 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. bath

Etymology & Origin

澡

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵喿 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 澡

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
洗澡verbxǐ zǎoto bathe3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
冲澡verbchōng zǎoto take a shower
澡堂nounzǎo tángpublic baths
澡盆nounzǎo pénbath tub
擦澡verbcā zǎoto rub down with a wet towel
澡塘zǎo tángcommunal bath
热水澡rè shuǐ zǎohot bath or shower
洗澡间nounxǐ zǎo jiānbathroom
澡身浴德zǎo shēn yù déto bathe the body and cleanse virtue (idiom)
鸟澡盆niǎo zǎo pénbirdbath
泡澡verbpào zǎoto bathe
澡巾zǎo jīnscrub mitt
澡罐zǎo guàntub (used for ablutions in a monastery)
13
Total compounds
46
As first character
38
As last character
15
As middle character

澡 appears in 13 compound words: 46 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 15 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 澡 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

洗xǐ
0.7033,903 co-occurrences
搓cuō
0.54068 co-occurrences
泡pào
0.530564 co-occurrences
堂táng
0.5081,656 co-occurrences
浴yù
0.489238 co-occurrences
厕cè
0.39616 co-occurrences
盆pén
0.38964 co-occurrences
漱shù
0.37910 co-occurrences
呢ne
0.37538 co-occurrences
哦ò
0.35412 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

澡身浴德zǎo shēn yù déHSK 6+

to bathe the body and cleanse virtue (idiom); to improve oneself by meditation; cleanliness is next to godliness

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

每天洗澡保持清洁。

Měitiān xǐ zǎo bǎochí qīngjié.

Take a bath every day to stay clean.

少数派Aug 2026

今晚住回了万朵酒店,终于可以洗澡了!

jīn wǎn zhù huí le wàn duǒ jiǔ diàn , zhōng yú kě yǐ xǐ zǎo le !

I'm staying at the Wando Hotel again tonight—I can finally take a shower!

Hk01.comApr 2026

...并购Manus被叫停 央视:禁止企业“洗澡式出海”

. . . bìng gòu M a n u s bèi jiào tíng yāng shì : jīn zhǐ qǐ yè xǐ zǎo shì chū hǎi

...Manus Acquisition Halted; CCTV: Companies Prohibited from "Overseas Expansion for the Sake of It"

三立新聞網Mar 2026

毕旅玩过头!高职生偷拍洗澡片恶搞下场曝

bì lǚ wán guò tóu ! gāo zhí shēng tōu pāi xǐ zǎo piàn è gǎo xià chǎng pù

Graduation Trip Gone Too Far! Vocational High School Student's Prank Involving Secretly Filmed Shower Footage Backfires

99 健康网Feb 2026

发明洗澡吃橙子的人是个天才?揭秘“浴室水果”背后...

fā míng xǐ zǎo chī chéng zǐ de rén shì gè tiān cái ? jiē mì yù shì shuǐ guǒ bèi hòu . . .

The man who invented the bath and eating oranges was a genius? Revealing the "bathroom fruit" behind it...

百度新闻Feb 2026

浙江男子铁锅里泡澡,底下还烧着火,一个接一个!杭州..

zhè jiāng nán zǐ tiě guō lǐ pāo zǎo , de xià hái shāo zhe huǒ , yī gě jiē yī gě ! háng zhōu . .

Zhejiang man in the iron pot bath, underneath the fire, one after another! Hangzhou ...

Tatoeba

我可不可以早上洗澡?

Wǒ kěbu kěyǐ zǎoshang xǐzǎo?

May I take a shower in the morning?

Tatoeba

我们一起洗澡,好吗?

Wǒmen yīqǐ xǐzǎo, hǎo ma?

Shall we take a bath together?

Tatoeba

我通常在晚上洗澡。

Wǒ tōngcháng zài wǎnshang xǐzǎo.

I usually take a shower in the evening.

Tatoeba

我睡觉前总要洗个澡。

Wǒ shuìjiào qián zǒng yào xǐ ge zǎo.

I always take a bath before going to bed.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced zǎo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 澡 (zǎo) mean in Chinese?
澡 (zǎo) primarily means "bath." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #2560 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 澡 and 操?
澡 (zǎo) and 操 (cāo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 氵 vs 扌 (same 喿 component).
How many strokes does 澡 have?
澡 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 澡?
The radical associated with 澡 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 澡?
澡 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 喿 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵喿 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 澡?
Common words with 澡 include: 洗澡 (xǐ zǎo, "to bathe"); 冲澡 (chōng zǎo, "to take a shower"); 澡堂 (zǎo táng, "public baths"); 澡盆 (zǎo pén, "bath tub"); 擦澡 (cā zǎo, "to rub down with a wet towel"). There are over 13 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 澡 (zǎo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zǎo: 造 (to make, to build), 早 (early, morning), 遭 (to meet by chance (usually with misfortune)), 糟 (dregs), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 澡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 澡 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 澡 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.