咂 meaning and stroke order
To suck, to smack the lips
How to write 咂, stroke by stroke
8 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 咂
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- to sip
- to smack one's lips
- to taste
- to savor
How 咂 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Mouth.
口 gives the meaning and 匝 hints at the sound.
Radical: 口 (mouth), shared by 428 characters on this site.
How to remember 咂
The mouth 口 (kǒu) on the left shows this is something you do with your lips, and 匝 (zā) on the right gives the sound. Picture your mouth going around a sip of tea, making a little zā sound as you smack your lips.
咂 is used for small mouth actions: sipping, smacking the lips, or tasting something slowly to enjoy it. It often appears in 咂嘴 (zā zuǐ, to smack one's lips) and 咂摸 (zāmo, to savor or think over). Example: 他咂了一口酒。(Tā zā le yì kǒu jiǔ.) He took a sip of the wine.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes write the phonetic part 匝 on its own and drop the 口, or confuse 咂 with 砸 (zá, to smash), which has 石 on the left and a second tone. Remember that the mouth radical means a lip action, and the tone is first tone zā.
Questions about 咂
How many strokes are in 咂?
咂 is written with 8 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 咂 mean?
咂 (zā) means to suck, to smack the lips.
How do you pronounce 咂?
咂 is pronounced zā, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 咂?
The radical of 咂 is 口, which carries the idea of "mouth". Dictionaries list 咂 under this radical.
What does 咂嘴 mean in Chinese?
咂嘴 (zā zuǐ) means to smack one's lips. People do it after tasting something good, or sometimes to show surprise or doubt, as in 他咂咂嘴，没说话 (he smacked his lips and said nothing).
How is 咂 different from 喝 (hē) for drinking?
喝 is the general word for drinking. 咂 describes taking a small sip and tasting it carefully, so it focuses on the slow, savoring action of the lips rather than just drinking.