馔 (zhuàn): food, delicacies

馔 (zhuàn) is a Chinese character meaning “food.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 饣 (semantic) and 巽 (phonetic). It ranks #9999 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 馔 food. Its radical form 饣 (eat) appears in many related characters such as 饭 (fàn, meal, rice), 饿 (è, hungry), 饱 (bǎo, full).

Spoken pronunciation
Radical: 饣 eat15 strokesFrequency #9999饣 semantic巽 phonetic

Definitions

  1. food
  2. delicacies

Etymology & Origin

馔

pictophoneticfood

Decomposition: ⿰饣巽 (layout: left-right)

Components:饣semantic巽phonetic

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
美馔měi zhuàndelicacy
珍馐美馔zhēn xiū měi zhuàndelicacy and fine taste (idiom)
盛馔nounshèng zhuànrich fare
3
Total compounds
0
As first character
100
As last character
0
As middle character

馔 appears in 3 compound words: 0 as the first character, 100 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

荷叶入馔，历史悠久。

hé yè rù zhuàn , lì shǐ yōu jiǔ .

Lotus leaves have been used in cooking for a very long time.

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

哪些人适宜食用这道清凉妙馔？

nǎ xiē rén shì yí shí yòng zhè dào qīng liáng miào zhuàn ?

Who should enjoy this refreshing delicacy?

中国新闻网·生活Apr 2026

时令“漂亮饭”将生活仪式感拉满 这份春日鲜花入馔指南请收好

shí lìng piāo liàng fàn jiāng shēng huó yí shì gǎn lā mǎn zhè fèn chūn rì xiān huā rù zhuàn zhǐ nán qǐng shōu hǎo

Seasonal “Beautiful Meals” Add a Touch of Ceremony to Daily Life—Be Sure to Save This Guide to Incorporating Fresh Spring Flowers into Your Cooking

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 饣 (food) component

饭fàn饮yǐn饱bǎo饼bǐng饥jī饶ráo饲sì饨tún馄hún饵ěr

Related Characters

饭fàn饿è饱bǎo馆guǎn饼bǐng饺jiǎo饰shì饲sì饵ěr饶ráo

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhuàn

撰zhuàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 馔 (zhuàn) mean in Chinese?
馔 (zhuàn) primarily means "food." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #9999 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 馔 have?
馔 is written with 15 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 馔?
The radical associated with 馔 is 饣 (eat). This radical appears in many characters related to eat.
What are the components of 馔?
馔 is composed of: 饣 (semantic), 巽 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰饣巽 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 馔?
Common words with 馔 include: 美馔 (měi zhuàn, "delicacy"); 珍馐美馔 (zhēn xiū měi zhuàn, "delicacy and fine taste (idiom)"); 盛馔 (shèng zhuàn, "rich fare"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 馔 (zhuàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhuàn: 撰 (to compose). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 馔 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 馔 and the traditional form is 籑.

Practice writing 馔 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

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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.