Meaning of 食物
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- food
How to use 食物
食物 is a general, slightly formal word for food. It is common in writing, on signs, and when talking about health or nutrition. Example: 这些食物很健康。(Zhèxiē shíwù hěn jiànkāng.) This food is very healthy.
食 (shí) means to eat, and 物 (wù) means thing. Put them together and you get the things you eat: food. You can see the same 物 in 动物 (dòngwù), moving things or animals, and 礼物 (lǐwù), gift things or presents.
Common mistake: Learners often use 食物 when ordering or chatting about meals, where Chinese speakers usually say 吃的 (chī de) or 饭 (fàn). Also, 事物 (shìwù) means thing or object and has the same wù sound but a different first character and tone, so do not mix up 食 (shí) and 事 (shì).
食物 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.
食 shí · food · 9 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
物 wù · thing · 8 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
Related words
Words that share a character with 食物.
Questions about 食物
What does 食物 mean?
食物 (shíwù) means "food" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 食物?
食物 is made of 2 characters: 食 (9 strokes), 物 (8 strokes). That is 17 strokes in total.
Is 食物 an HSK word?
Yes. 食物 is on the HSK 2 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 食物 and 食品?
食物 is food in general, including natural food like fruit and meat. 食品 (shípǐn) often means processed or packaged food products, as in 食品店 (shípǐn diàn), a food shop.
Can 食物 be used for animal food?
Yes. 食物 can describe what any living thing eats, for example 熊猫的食物是竹子 (xióngmāo de shíwù shì zhúzi), a panda's food is bamboo.