蘸 (zhàn): to dip in (ink, sauce etc)

蘸 (zhàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to dip in (ink, sauce etc).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (structural) and 醮 (structural). It ranks #2979 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 蘸 to perform a rite 醮 again (like a perennial 艹). Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 花 (huā, flower), 茶 (chá, tea), 菜 (cài, vegetable, dish).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 艹 grass22 strokesFrequency #2979艹 structural醮 structural

Definitions

  1. to dip in (ink, sauce etc)

Etymology & Origin

蘸

ideographicTo perform a rite 醮 again (like a perennial 艹)

Decomposition: ⿱艹醮 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:艹structural醮structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
蘸火zhàn huǒto quench (a metal workpiece)
蘸破zhàn pòto wake up due to noise
蘸酱zhàn jiàngdipping sauce
3
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

蘸 appears in 3 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 蘸 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

酱jiàng
0.618396 co-occurrences
螃páng
0.584138 co-occurrences
蟹xiè
0.478132 co-occurrences
汁zhī
0.463114 co-occurrences
葱cōng
0.46342 co-occurrences
醋cù
0.43742 co-occurrences
辣là
0.43390 co-occurrences
椒jiāo
0.41754 co-occurrences
笔bǐ
0.412108 co-occurrences
沾zhān
0.41230 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习蘸字需要反复练习，才能写得工整。

xué xí zhàn zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Mastering the art of dipping characters requires repeated practice to achieve neatness.

SmzdmMar 2026

撒撇!瑞丽本地人私藏的“灵魂蘸水”

sā piē ! ruì lí běn dì rén sī zàng de líng hún zhàn shuǐ

Tatoeba

薯条蘸蛋黄酱很好吃！

Shǔtiáo zhàn dànhuángjiàng hěn hǎochī!

Chips with mayonnaise is delicious!

Character Family

艹 Radical Family — Characters sharing the grass radical

菜cài草cǎo茶chá花huā节jié苦kǔ蓝lán药yào艺yì英yīng

Related Characters

花huā茶chá菜cài节jié英yīng草cǎo药yào蓝lán艺yì苦kǔ

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhàn

沾zhān瞻zhān斩zhǎn展zhǎn盏zhǎn占zhàn战zhàn站zhàn绽zhàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 蘸 (zhàn) mean in Chinese?
蘸 (zhàn) primarily means "to dip in (ink, sauce etc)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2979 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 蘸 have?
蘸 is written with 22 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 蘸?
The radical associated with 蘸 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 蘸?
蘸 is composed of: 艹 (structural), 醮 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹醮 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 蘸?
Common words with 蘸 include: 蘸火 (zhàn huǒ, "to quench (a metal workpiece)"); 蘸破 (zhàn pò, "to wake up due to noise"); 蘸酱 (zhàn jiàng, "dipping sauce"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 蘸 (zhàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhàn: 沾 (to moisten), 瞻 (to gaze), 斩 (to chop), 展 (to spread out), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 蘸 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 蘸 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 蘸 with real-time feedback

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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.