Meaning of 吞
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- to swallow
- to take
How to use 吞
吞 means to swallow something whole without chewing, like a pill or a big bite. It also appears in words about taking something greedily, such as 独吞 (dútūn, to keep everything for oneself). Example: 他把药吞下去了。(Tā bǎ yào tūn xiàqu le.) He swallowed the medicine.
吞 (tūn) has 天 (tiān, sky) sitting on top of 口 (kǒu, mouth). Picture a mouth so wide it could swallow the whole sky.
Common mistake: Learners often write the top as 夭 (yāo) instead of 天 (tiān). The top of 吞 is 天, with two flat horizontal strokes, and no slanted stroke at the top. Also keep the first tone; tūn is not tún.
吞 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
吞 tūn · to swallow · 7 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 吞.
| 吞噬 | tūnshì | to swallow; to engulf |
| 吞没 | tūnmò | to embezzle; to swallow up |
| 慢吞吞 | màntūntūn | very slow; exasperatingly slow |
| 吞食 | tūnshí | to devour |
| 独吞 | dútūn | to hog; to keep everything for oneself |
| 狼吞虎咽 | lángtūnhǔyàn | to wolf down one's food (idiom); to devour ravenously; to gorge oneself |
| 忍气吞声 | rěnqìtūnshēng | to submit to humiliation (idiom); to suffer in silence; to swallow one's anger |
| 吞并 | tūnbìng | to annex |
Questions about 吞
What does 吞 mean?
吞 (tūn) means "to swallow; to take" and is used as a verb.
How do you write 吞?
吞 is made of 1 character: 吞 (7 strokes). That is 7 strokes in total.
Is 吞 an HSK word?
Yes. 吞 is on the HSK 6 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 吞 (tūn) and 咽 (yàn)?
吞 stresses swallowing something whole in one go, often something solid or large. 咽 is the ordinary act of swallowing, like swallowing saliva or food after chewing. The idiom 狼吞虎咽 (lángtūnhǔyàn) uses both to describe eating very fast.
Why does 慢吞吞 (màntūntūn) mean slow if 吞 means swallow?
In 慢吞吞, the repeated 吞吞 works as a descriptive sound pattern that adds the feeling of dragging along. It does not carry the swallowing meaning here. It is used to describe someone who moves or acts annoyingly slowly, as in 他做事慢吞吞的 (tā zuòshì màntūntūn de).