沧 meaning and stroke order
Azure, cold, vast (all as of the sea)
How to write 沧, stroke by stroke
7 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
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- 7
Meaning of 沧
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- (bound form) (of water, esp. the ocean) deep blue-green
- (literary) cold
How 沧 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Water.
氵 gives the meaning and 仓 hints at the sound.
Radical: 氵 (water), shared by 467 characters on this site.
How to remember 沧
沧 is water 氵 plus 仓 (cāng), which gives the sound. Picture a huge storehouse 仓 filled with deep blue-green sea water, too vast to see the bottom.
沧 is a bound form that appears in set words and literary phrases, not on its own. The most common word is 沧桑 (cāngsāng), meaning great changes or the ups and downs of life. Example: 他的脸上写满了沧桑。(Tā de liǎn shàng xiě mǎn le cāngsāng.) His face is full of the marks of a hard life.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 沧 with 苍 (cāng, dark green or grey, as in 苍白 pale). They share the same sound and phonetic part, but 沧 has the water radical and relates to the sea, while 苍 has the grass radical.
Common words with 沧
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 沧桑 | cāngsāng | great changes; ups and downs | HSK 7-9 |
Questions about 沧
How many strokes are in 沧?
沧 is written with 7 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 沧 mean?
沧 (cāng) means azure, cold, vast (all as of the sea). A common word with it is 沧桑 (cāngsāng), meaning "great changes; ups and downs".
How do you pronounce 沧?
沧 is pronounced cāng, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 沧?
The radical of 沧 is 氵, which carries the idea of "water". Dictionaries list 沧 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 沧?
The traditional form of 沧 is 滄. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 沧 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 沧 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 沧 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
What does the idiom 沧海桑田 mean?
沧海桑田 (cānghǎi sāngtián) literally means the blue sea turning into mulberry fields. It describes huge changes over time, and it is the source of the shorter word 沧桑.
Is 沧 used in place names?
Yes. A well known example is 沧州 (Cāngzhōu), a city in Hebei province. In names like this it is simply part of the name, not a description of the sea.