糟 meaning and stroke order
Dregs; draff; pickled in wine
How to write 糟, stroke by stroke
17 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 糟
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- dregs
- draff
- pickled in wine
- rotten
- messy
- ruined
How 糟 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Grain.
米 gives the meaning and 曹 hints at the sound.
Radical: 米 (rice), shared by 50 characters on this site.
How to remember 糟
糟 is made of 米 (mǐ, rice or grain) for meaning and 曹 (cáo) for sound. Picture the leftover grain mash after wine is brewed: the dregs, the messy part nobody wants.
On its own 糟 is rare in daily speech. It mostly appears in words like 糟糕 (zāogāo, too bad) and 乱七八糟 (luànqībāzāo, a total mess). Example: 糟糕，我忘带钥匙了。(Zāogāo, wǒ wàng dài yàoshi le.) Oh no, I forgot my keys.
Common mistake: Learners often read 糟 as cáo because of its sound part 曹, but it is first tone zāo. Also do not confuse it with 槽 (cáo, trough), which has 木 on the left instead of 米.
Common words with 糟
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
糟 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 糟
How many strokes are in 糟?
糟 is written with 17 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 糟 mean?
糟 (zāo) means dregs; draff; pickled in wine. A common word with it is 糟糕 (zāogāo), meaning "too bad; how terrible".
How do you pronounce 糟?
糟 is pronounced zāo, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 糟?
The radical of 糟 is 米, which carries the idea of "rice". Dictionaries list 糟 under this radical.
Is 糟 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 糟 is part of the HSK 5 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Is 糟糕 only an exclamation like 'oh no'?
No. It can stand alone as 'oh no' or 'too bad', and it also works as an adjective meaning terrible. For example, 天气很糟糕 (tiānqì hěn zāogāo) means the weather is awful.
What does 糟 mean in food names?
It refers to food pickled in wine dregs, keeping the old 'dregs' meaning. You may see dishes like 糟鸭 (zāo yā), duck preserved in wine lees, on Shanghai or Jiangnan menus.