灶 meaning and stroke order
Kitchen, oven, stove
How to write 灶, 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.
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Meaning of 灶
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- kitchen stove
- kitchen; mess; canteen
- variant of 灶[zao4]
How 灶 is built
Ideographic (compound meaning) character. A clay 土 oven 火.
Radical: 火 (fire), shared by 128 characters on this site.
How to remember 灶
Picture fire 火 (huǒ) burning beside a mound of earth 土 (tǔ). A fire built inside clay or earth is a traditional stove 灶 (zào).
灶 (zào) means a cooking stove, and by extension a kitchen or a place where people eat together, like a canteen. It often appears in compounds such as 炉灶 (lúzào) stove and 灶台 (zàotái) stovetop. Example: 奶奶在灶上做饭。(Nǎinai zài zào shàng zuò fàn.) Grandma is cooking on the stove.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes write the components in the wrong order and put 土 on the left. In 灶 the fire 火 is on the left and 土 is on the right. Also keep the fourth tone: zào, not zǎo or zāo.
Common words with 灶
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 炉灶 | lúzào | stove | HSK 7-9 |
灶 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 灶
How many strokes are in 灶?
灶 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 灶 mean?
灶 (zào) means kitchen, oven, stove. A common word with it is 炉灶 (lúzào), meaning "stove".
How do you pronounce 灶?
灶 is pronounced zào, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 灶?
The radical of 灶 is 火, which carries the idea of "fire". Dictionaries list 灶 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 灶?
The traditional form of 灶 is 竈. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 灶 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 灶 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 灶 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
What does 开小灶 (kāi xiǎozào) mean?
Literally it means to open a small stove, which once meant cooking special meals apart from the common canteen. Today it means giving someone special treatment or extra private help, such as a teacher tutoring one student after class.
Is 灶 used for a modern gas stove?
Yes. A gas stove is often called 煤气灶 (méiqìzào) or 燃气灶 (ránqìzào). The word 灶 covers both old clay stoves and modern kitchen burners.