泉 meaning and stroke order
Spring (small stream); mouth of a spring; coin (archaic)
How to write 泉, stroke by stroke
9 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 泉
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- spring (small stream)
- mouth of a spring
- coin (archaic)
How 泉 is built
Ideographic (compound meaning) character. Water 水 flowing from a spring 白.
Radical: 水 (water), shared by 15 characters on this site.
How to remember 泉
泉 (quán) is 白 on top of 水. Picture a clear, white source at the top with water 水 flowing out below it, and you have a spring.
泉 rarely stands alone in modern speech. It mostly appears in words like 温泉 (wēnquán) hot spring, 喷泉 (pēnquán) fountain, and 矿泉水 (kuàngquánshuǐ) mineral water. Example: 我想买一瓶矿泉水。(Wǒ xiǎng mǎi yì píng kuàngquánshuǐ.) I want to buy a bottle of mineral water.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes write the top as 自 or 日 instead of 白. Remember the top is 白 (bái) with its small dot stroke on top. Also, the bottom 水 is written in full here. It does not become the three-dot 氵 on the left side.
Common words with 泉
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
泉 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Characters that contain 泉
Learning 泉 makes these easier to recognize and write.
Questions about 泉
How many strokes are in 泉?
泉 is written with 9 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 泉 mean?
泉 (quán) means spring (small stream); mouth of a spring; coin (archaic). A common word with it is 矿泉水 (kuàngquánshuǐ), meaning "mineral water".
How do you pronounce 泉?
泉 is pronounced quán, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 泉?
The radical of 泉 is 水, which carries the idea of "water". Dictionaries list 泉 under this radical.
Is 泉 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 泉 is part of the HSK 4 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Does 泉 still mean money in modern Chinese?
No. The coin meaning is archaic and shows up mainly in classical texts and in old coin collecting. In everyday Chinese, 泉 means a spring or a source of water.
How is 源泉 different from 泉水?
泉水 (quánshuǐ) is the actual water that comes from a spring. 源泉 (yuánquán) means a fountainhead and is often used figuratively, as in 知识的源泉 (zhīshi de yuánquán), the source of knowledge.