Meaning of 糟
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- dregs
- draff
- pickled in wine
- rotten
- messy
- ruined
How to use 糟
On its own 糟 describes something that has gone badly, but it appears most often in fixed words like 糟糕 (zāogāo) and 乱七八糟 (luànqībāzāo). Example: 他的房间乱七八糟。(Tā de fángjiān luànqībāzāo.) His room is a total mess.
糟 has 米 (mǐ, rice) on the left and 曹 (cáo) on the right, which hints at the sound. Picture rice left over after brewing wine: the dregs, a soggy mess, which is why 糟 means messy or ruined.
Common mistake: Learners often mix up 糟 (zāo) with 遭 (zāo, to suffer or meet with), since they share the same sound and the 曹 part. Remember that 糟 has the rice radical 米 for bad or messy things, while 遭 has the walking radical 辶 for running into trouble, as in 遭到 (zāodào).
糟 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.
糟 zāo · dregs · 17 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 糟.
Questions about 糟
What does 糟 mean?
糟 (zāo) means "dregs; draff" and is used as a adjective.
How do you write 糟?
糟 is made of 1 character: 糟 (17 strokes). That is 17 strokes in total.
Is 糟 an HSK word?
Yes. 糟 is on the HSK 5 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How do you say 'Oh no' or 'That's terrible' with 糟?
Say 糟了 (zāo le) or 糟糕 (zāogāo) when something suddenly goes wrong. For example, 糟了，我忘带钥匙了。(Zāo le, wǒ wàng dài yàoshi le.) means 'Oh no, I forgot my keys.'
Does 糟 have anything to do with food or cooking?
Yes. Its original sense is the dregs left from making wine, and it can mean pickled in wine. You see this in dishes like 糟鱼 (zāoyú), fish preserved in wine lees.