斟 (zhēn): to pour

斟 (zhēn) is a Chinese character meaning “to pour.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 甚 (phonetic) and 斗 (semantic). It ranks #3050 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 斟 measuring cup. Its radical form 斗 (dipper) appears in many related characters such as 料 (liào, material), 斜 (xié, inclined), 斗 (dǒu, abbr. for the Big Dipper constellation 北斗星).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 斗 dipper13 strokesFrequency #3050甚 phonetic斗 semantic

Definitions

  1. to pour

Etymology & Origin

斟

pictophoneticmeasuring cup

Decomposition: ⿰甚斗 (layout: left-right)

Components:甚phonetic斗semantic

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
斟酌zhēn zhuóto consider
斟酒zhēn jiǔto pour wine or liquor
字斟句酌zì zhēn jù zhuóweighing every word
斟酌决定权zhēn zhuó jué dìng quándiscretionary power
斟酌字句zhēn zhuó zì jùto measure one's words
5
Total compounds
80
As first character
0
As last character
20
As middle character

斟 appears in 5 compound words: 80 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 20 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 斟 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

酌zhuó
0.7922,772 co-occurrences
灌guàn
0.507516 co-occurrences
酒jiǔ
0.450882 co-occurrences
浇jiāo
0.41430 co-occurrences
寻xún
0.413222 co-occurrences
介jiè
0.406588 co-occurrences
氏shì
0.377492 co-occurrences
灭miè
0.371120 co-occurrences
杯bēi
0.371138 co-occurrences
句jù
0.368144 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

字斟句酌zì zhēn jù zhuóHSK 7+

weighing every word

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习斟字需要反复练习，才能写得工整。

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

Mastering the character "斟" requires repeated practice to write it neatly.

StheadlineMar 2026

英超│曼联斟介般奴古马雷斯到最后阶段 转会费8000...

yīng chāo 曼 lián zhēn jiè bān nú gǔ mǎ léi sī dào zuì hòu jiē duàn zhuǎn huì fèi 8 0 0 0 . . .

Premier League | Manchester United pursue Bruno Guimarães until the final stages; transfer fee of 80 million...

EttodayFeb 2026

...诉!律师喊不理解“这很难成立”曝原因:要斟酌

. . . sù ! lǜ shī hǎn bù lǐ jiě zhè hěn nán chéng lì pù yuán yīn : yāo zhēn zhuó

... Sue! The lawyer shouted that he did not understand that "this is difficult to establish" and exposed the reason: it must be considered

Character Family

斗 Radical Family — Characters sharing the dipper radical

斜xié斗dǒu料liào

Related Characters

料liào斜xié斗dǒu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 斟 (zhēn) mean in Chinese?
斟 (zhēn) primarily means "to pour." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3050 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 斟 and 勘?
斟 (zhēn) and 勘 (kān) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 斗 vs 力 (same 甚 component).
How many strokes does 斟 have?
斟 is written with 13 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 斟?
The radical associated with 斟 is 斗 (dipper). This radical appears in many characters related to dipper.
What are the components of 斟?
斟 is composed of: 甚 (phonetic), 斗 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰甚斗 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 斟?
Common words with 斟 include: 斟酌 (zhēn zhuó, "to consider"); 斟酒 (zhēn jiǔ, "to pour wine or liquor"); 字斟句酌 (zì zhēn jù zhuó, "weighing every word"); 斟酌决定权 (zhēn zhuó jué dìng quán, "discretionary power"); 斟酌字句 (zhēn zhuó zì jù, "to measure one's words"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
Is 斟 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 斟 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 斟 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.