酌 (zhuó): to pour wine, to drink wine, to deliberate

酌 (zhuó) is a Chinese character meaning “to pour wine.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 酉 (semantic) and 勺 (phonetic). It ranks #2735 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 酌 wine. Its radical form 酉 (wine) appears in many related characters such as 配 (pèi, to join), 酸 (suān, sour), 醒 (xǐng, to wake up).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 酉 wine10 strokesFrequency #2735酉 semantic勺 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to pour wine
  2. to drink wine
  3. to deliberate

Etymology & Origin

酌

pictophoneticwine

Decomposition: ⿰酉勺 (layout: left-right)

Components:酉semantic勺phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Practice writing 酌 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
酌情zhuó qíngto use discretion
字斟句酌zì zhēn jù zhuóweighing every word
商酌shāng zhuóto deliberate
酌情处理zhuó qíng chǔ lǐsee 酌情辦理|酌情办理[zhuo2 qing2 ban4 li3]
酌情办理zhuó qíng bàn lǐto act after full consideration of the actual situation
衡情酌理héng qíng zhuó lǐto weight the matter and deliberate the reason (idiom)
酌处权zhuó chǔ quándiscretion
斟酌决定权zhēn zhuó jué dìng quándiscretionary power
对酌duì zhuóto sit face-to-face and drink
自酌zì zhuóto enjoy a cup of wine by oneself
酌定zhuó dìngto decide after intense deliberation
小酌xiǎo zhuóto have a few (alcoholic) drinks (often implying a small party)
酌加zhuó jiāto make considered additions
酌处zhuó chǔto use one's own discretion
36
Total compounds
53
As first character
39
As last character
8
As middle character

酌 appears in 36 compound words: 53 as the first character, 39 as the last, and 8 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 酌 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

斟zhēn
0.7922,772 co-occurrences
情qíng
0.4353,702 co-occurrences
酒jiǔ
0.369660 co-occurrences
枯kū
0.36466 co-occurrences
量liàng
0.3431,380 co-occurrences
愚yú
0.34366 co-occurrences
饮yǐn
0.33990 co-occurrences
豁huá
0.33036 co-occurrences
谨jǐn
0.32936 co-occurrences
焚fén
0.32566 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

字斟句酌zì zhēn jù zhuóHSK 7+

weighing every word

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习酌字需要反复练习，才能写得工整。

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

Mastering calligraphy requires repeated practice to achieve neat and precise writing.

EttodayFeb 2026

...!律师喊不理解“这很难成立”曝原因:要斟酌

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

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

Tatoeba

我想花点时间斟酌斟酌再作决定。

Wǒ xiǎng huā diǎn shíjiān zhēnzhuó zhēnzhuó zài zuò juédìng.

I'd like some time to consider before I make a decision.

Character Family

酉 Radical Family — Characters sharing the wine radical

酬chóu酣hān酱jiàng酵jiào酷kù酪lào酿niàng配pèi醒xǐng酝yùn

Related Characters

配pèi酸suān醒xǐng醉zuì酱jiàng酷kù醋cù酗xù酝yùn酣hān

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhuó

灼zhuó拙zhuō捉zhuō桌zhuō卓zhuó浊zhuó琢zhuó

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 酌 (zhuó) mean in Chinese?
酌 (zhuó) primarily means "to pour wine." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2735 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 酌 and 豹?
酌 (zhuó) and 豹 (bào) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 酉 vs 豸 (same 勺 component).
How many strokes does 酌 have?
酌 is written with 10 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 酌?
The radical associated with 酌 is 酉 (wine). This radical appears in many characters related to wine.
What are the components of 酌?
酌 is composed of: 酉 (semantic), 勺 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰酉勺 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 酌?
Common words with 酌 include: 斟酌 (zhēn zhuó, "to consider"); 酌情 (zhuó qíng, "to use discretion"); 字斟句酌 (zì zhēn jù zhuó, "weighing every word"); 商酌 (shāng zhuó, "to deliberate"); 酌情处理 (zhuó qíng chǔ lǐ, "see 酌情辦理|酌情办理[zhuo2 qing2 ban4 li3]"). There are over 36 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 酌 (zhuó)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhuó: 灼 (to burn), 拙 (awkward), 捉 (to clutch), 桌 (table, desk), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 酌 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 酌 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.