沼 (zhǎo): pond, pool

沼 (zhǎo) is a Chinese character meaning “pond.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 召 (phonetic). It ranks #2396 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 沼 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. pond
  2. pool

Etymology & Origin

沼

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵召 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
沼泽nounzhǎo zémarsh
沼泽地nounzhǎo zé dìmarsh
泥沼nounní zhǎoswamp
沼气nounzhǎo qìmarsh gas
池沼nounchí zhǎopool
沼泽地带zhǎo zé dì dàimarsh
湖沼学nounhú zhǎo xuélimnology
日本沼虾rì běn zhǎo xiāoriental river prawn (Macrobrachium nipponense), a species of freshwater shrimp, also called 青蝦|青虾
沼泽大尾莺zhǎo zé dà wěi yīng(bird species of China) striated grassbird (Megalurus palustris)
沼泽山雀zhǎo zé shān què(bird species of China) marsh tit (Poecile palustris)
湖沼nounhú zhǎolakes and marshes
沼狸zhǎo lí(zoology) coypu
12
Total compounds
58
As first character
25
As last character
17
As middle character

沼 appears in 12 compound words: 58 as the first character, 25 as the last, and 17 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 沼 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

泽zé
0.6096,001 co-occurrences
泥ní
0.5161,398 co-occurrences
悟wù
0.482824 co-occurrences
柿shì
0.463204 co-occurrences
湿shī
0.457504 co-occurrences
津jīn
0.4531,862 co-occurrences
仙xiān
0.4411,164 co-occurrences
浅qiǎn
0.436412 co-occurrences
田tián
0.4353,790 co-occurrences
炭tàn
0.421320 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

暴雨过后,沼水上涨,淹没了低洼的街道。

bào yǔ guò hòu , zhǎo shuǐ shǎng zhǎng , yān méi le dī 洼 de jiē dào .

After the downpour, the swamp water rose, flooding the low-lying streets.

爱范儿Sep 2026

系列制作人青沼英二在直面会上演示了城镇、野外探索、战斗和音乐演奏等内容。

xì liè zhì zuò rén qīng zhǎo yīng èr zài zhí miàn huì shàng yǎn shì le chéng zhèn , yě wài tàn suǒ , zhàn dǒu hé yīn lè yǎn zòu děng nèi róng .

Series producer Eiji Aonuma demonstrated elements such as town life, outdoor exploration, combat, and music performances during the Direct presentation.

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

先民搬运海量泥土,在沼泽之上垒起十余米高的台地,宫殿建筑矗立高台之上,俯瞰整座古城。

xiān mín bān yùn hǎi liàng ní tǔ , zài zhǎo zé zhī shàng lěi qǐ shí yú mǐ gāo de tái dì , gōng diàn jiàn zhù chù lì gāo tái zhī shàng , fǔ 瞰 zhěng zuò gǔ chéng .

Ancient people hauled vast quantities of earth to build a platform more than ten meters high above the marsh; the palace complex stands atop this elevated platform, overlooking the entire ancient city.

爱范儿Jul 2026

松冈茉优饰演急诊外科医生沼田芙美。

sōng gāng mò yōu shì yǎn jí zhěn wài kē yī shēng zhǎo tián fú měi .

Mayu Matsuoka plays Fumi Numata, an emergency surgeon.

少数派Jun 2026

但我们怎么看都没看出来眼前的这一大片沼泽上的草能有这么厚。

dàn wǒ men zěn má kàn dōu méi kàn chū lái yǎn qián de zhè yī dà piàn zhǎo zé shàng de cǎo néng yǒu zhè má hòu .

But no matter how hard we looked, we couldn't tell that the grass covering this vast expanse of marshland was actually that thick.

Hk01.comMar 2026

...战:特朗普“秒杀”哈梅内伊 却自投战争泥沼

. . . zhàn : tè lǎng pǔ miǎo shā hā méi nèi yī què zì tóu zhàn zhēng ní zhǎo

... War: Trump "killed" Khamenei in seconds but threw himself into the quagmire of war

Tatoeba

你不能在沼泽地上建造建筑物。

Nǐ bù néng zài zhǎozédì shàng jiànzào jiànzhùwù.

You can't build buildings on swampy land.

Tatoeba

他独自一人住在沼泽地里的一栋小屋里。

Tā dúzì yī rén zhù zài zhǎozédì lǐ de yī dòng xiǎowū lǐ.

He lives alone in a little cottage in the swamp.

Tatoeba

许多苍鹭在沼泽地中生活。

Xǔduō cānglù zài zhǎozédì zhōng shēnghuó.

Lots of herons live in the marsh.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhǎo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 沼 (zhǎo) mean in Chinese?
沼 (zhǎo) primarily means "pond." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2396 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 沼 and 超?
沼 (zhǎo) and 超 (chāo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 氵 vs 走 (same 召 component).
How many strokes does 沼 have?
沼 is written with 8 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 沼?
The radical associated with 沼 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 沼?
沼 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 召 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵召 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 沼?
Common words with 沼 include: 沼泽 (zhǎo zé, "marsh"); 沼泽地 (zhǎo zé dì, "marsh"); 泥沼 (ní zhǎo, "swamp"); 沼气 (zhǎo qì, "marsh gas"); 池沼 (chí zhǎo, "pool"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 沼 (zhǎo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhǎo: 找 (to look for), 照 (shine, according to), 招 (to recruit, 招手), 赵 (one of the seven states during the Warring States period (476–220 BC)), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 沼 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 沼 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 沼 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.