嘴 (zuǐ): mouth, beak, nozzle

嘴 (zuǐ) is a Chinese character meaning “mouth.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 觜 (phonetic). It ranks #1009 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 嘴 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. mouth
  2. beak
  3. nozzle

Etymology & Origin

嘴

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口觜 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 嘴

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
嘴巴nounzuǐ bamouth5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
嘴里zuǐ lǐmouth
嘴唇nounzuǐ chúnlip
住嘴verbzhù zuǐto hold one's tongue
满嘴nounmǎn zuǐa full mouth of (sth physical)
插嘴verbchā zuǐto interrupt (sb talking)
多嘴verbduō zuǐtalkative
顶嘴verbdǐng zuǐto talk back
嘴脸nounzuǐ liǎnfeatures, face (esp. derogatorily)
张嘴verbzhāng zuǐto open one's mouth (to speak, esp. to make a request)
奶嘴nounnǎi zuǐnipple (on a baby's bottle)
嘴角nounzuǐ jiǎocorner of the mouth
油嘴adjectiveyóu zuǐeloquent and cunning
斗嘴dòu zuǐto quarrel
喷嘴nounpēn zuǐnozzle
回嘴verbhuí zuǐto answer back
100
Total compounds
32
As first character
65
As last character
3
As middle character

嘴 appears in 100 compound words: 32 as the first character, 65 as the last, and 3 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 嘴 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

唇chún
0.5952,570 co-occurrences
叼diāo
0.554181 co-occurrences
鸭yā
0.541742 co-occurrences
鳄è
0.521372 co-occurrences
咧liě
0.505138 co-occurrences
捂wǔ
0.50362 co-occurrences
馋chán
0.49525 co-occurrences
拌bàn
0.472248 co-occurrences
钳qián
0.472118 co-occurrences
尖jiān
0.4681,338 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (14)

笨嘴拙舌bènzuǐzhuōshéHSK 7+

synonym of 笨口拙舌 (bènkǒuzhuōshé, “awkward in speech; inarticulate”)

phrase
调嘴学舌tiáo zuǐ xué shéHSK 6+

to incite trouble between people (idiom)

phrase
多嘴多舌duō zuǐ duō shéHSK 6+

to gossip and meddle; to shoot one's mouth off; talkative

phrase
驴唇马嘴lǘ chún mǎ zuǐ

(lit.) a donkey's lips do not match a horse's mouth (idiom); (fig.) wide of the mark; irrelevant; incongruous

phrase
弄嘴弄舌nòng zuǐ nòng shéHSK 6+

to cause a dispute through boastful gossip (idiom)

phrase
贫嘴薄舌pín zuǐ bó shéHSK 6+

garrulous and sharp-tongued

phrase
七嘴八舌qīzuǐbāshéHSK 6+

a discussion with everybody talking at once

phrase
七嘴八张qī zuǐ bā zhāngHSK 3+

see 七嘴八舌

phrase
轻嘴薄舌qīng zuǐ bó shéHSK 6+

lit. light mouth, thin tongue (idiom); hasty and rude; caustic and sharp-tongued

phrase
耍嘴皮子shuǎ zuǐpíziHSK 7+

to be a smooth talker; to be a slick talker; to be all talk and no action

verb
油嘴滑舌yóuzuǐhuáshéHSK 6+

speaking in a confident way but without careful thought or honesty; glib, being a fast-talker

phrase
笨嘴拙腮bèn zuǐ zhuō sāiHSK 7+

see 笨嘴拙舌

phrase

Showing 12 of 14 idioms containing 嘴.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他对这个问题有自己独特的见解。

Tā duì zhè gè wèntí yǒu zìjǐ dútè de jiànjiě.

He has his own unique insights on this issue.

NewsFeb 2026

女子嘴角长水泡没重视,当晚脑死亡,医生提醒:出...

nǚ zǐ zuǐ jiǎo cháng shuǐ pāo méi chóng shì , dāng wǎn nǎo sǐ wáng , yī shēng tí xǐng chū . . .

The woman had blisters at the corners of her mouth and did not pay attention to it, and she died of brain death that night, and the doctor reminded: out...

中時新聞網Feb 2026

吴中纯罹淋巴癌不到1个月病逝!名嘴曝真实案例“3天就走了”

wú zhōng chún 罹 lín bā ái bù dào 1 gè yuè bìng shì ! míng zuǐ pù zhēn shí àn lì 3 tiān jiù zǒu le

Wu Zhongchun died of lymphoma less than 1 month ago! Celebrities exposed real cases "3 days and left"

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...評論家拒絕斷捨離 雜物堆家中一招堵住女兒嘴

. . . 評 論 jiā jù 絕 斷 捨 離 雜 wù duī jiā zhōng yī zhāo dǔ zhù nǚ 兒 zuǐ

...Critic refuses to declutter, piles up junk at home—one trick silences daughter

Tatoeba

为什么不让你的嘴巴休息呢?

Wèishénme bù ràng nǐ de zuǐba xiūxi ne?

Why don't you give your mouth a rest?

Tatoeba

来人,给我掌这贱女人嘴巴!

Lái rén, gěi wǒ zhǎng zhè jiàn nǚrén zuǐba!

Guards! Slap that vile woman's face!

Tatoeba

橙子在我嘴里留下了一种奇怪的味道。

Chéngzi zài wǒ zuǐ lǐ liúxià le yī zhǒng qíguài de wèidao.

The orange left a strange taste in my mouth.

Tatoeba

嘴里有东西的时候不准说话。

Zuǐlǐ yǒu dōngxi de shíhou bù zhǔn shuōhuà.

Don't talk with your mouth full.

Tatoeba

给母亲责骂的时候不要回嘴。

Gěi mǔqīn zémà de shíhou bù yào huí zuǐ.

You mustn't answer your mother back when she scolds you.

Tatoeba

贝丝很喜欢在别人说话的时候插嘴。

Bèi sī hěn xǐhuan zài biéren shuōhuà de shíhou chāzuǐ.

Beth has a strong habit of interrupting people while they are talking.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 口 (mouth) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced zuǐ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 嘴 (zuǐ) mean in Chinese?
嘴 (zuǐ) primarily means "mouth." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1009 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 嘴 have?
嘴 is written with 16 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 嘴?
The radical associated with 嘴 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 嘴?
嘴 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 觜 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口觜 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 嘴?
Common words with 嘴 include: 嘴里 (zuǐ lǐ, "mouth"); 嘴巴 (zuǐ ba, "mouth"); 嘴唇 (zuǐ chún, "lip"); 住嘴 (zhù zuǐ, "to hold one's tongue"); 满嘴 (mǎn zuǐ, "a full mouth of (sth physical)"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 嘴 (zuǐ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zuǐ: 最 ((before an adjective or verb) to the highest degree), 罪 (guilt), 醉 (intoxicated). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 嘴 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 嘴 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 嘴 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.