脏 meaning and stroke order
Dirty; filthy; to get (sth) dirty
How to write 脏, stroke by stroke
10 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 脏
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- dirty
- filthy
- to get (sth) dirty
- viscera
- (anatomy) organ
How 脏 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Flesh.
⺼ gives the meaning and 庄 hints at the sound.
Radical: ⺼ (meat), shared by 176 characters on this site.
How to remember 脏
The left part ⺼ means flesh, so think of the body's organs, and 庄 (zhuāng) gives the sound. Picture a farm 庄 full of animal innards, which are both organs and very dirty.
As zāng it is an everyday adjective for dirty, as in 衣服脏了 (yīfu zāng le) "the clothes are dirty." As zàng it appears mostly in compound words for organs, such as 心脏 (xīnzàng) heart and 肝脏 (gānzàng) liver.
Common mistake: Learners often read 心脏 as xīnzāng, which sounds like "heart is dirty." Organ words use fourth tone zàng, while dirty is first tone zāng.
Common words with 脏
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
脏 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 脏
How many strokes are in 脏?
脏 is written with 10 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 脏 mean?
脏 (zāng) means dirty; filthy; to get (sth) dirty. A common word with it is 心脏 (xīnzàng), meaning "heart".
How do you pronounce 脏?
脏 has more than one reading: zāng and zàng. The most common is zāng, said in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 脏?
The radical of 脏 is ⺼, which carries the idea of "meat". Dictionaries list 脏 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 脏?
The traditional form of 脏 is 臟 and 髒. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 脏 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 脏 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 脏 is part of the HSK 2 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard, and you are expected to write it by hand from HSK 2.
How do I know whether 脏 is read zāng or zàng?
If it means dirty, such as in 很脏 (hěn zāng) or 脏话 (zānghuà), it is zāng. If it names a body organ, such as in 内脏 (nèizàng) or 肾脏 (shènzàng), it is zàng.
What is the difference between 脏 and 肮脏?
脏 (zāng) is the common spoken word for physically dirty. 肮脏 (āngzāng) is more formal or literary and is often used for moral dirtiness, meaning despicable or corrupt.