吃
Tap the pinyin to hear it
to eat; to consume; to eat at (a cafeteria etc); to eradicate; to destroy; to absorb; to suffer (shock, injury, defeat etc)
- HSK 3.0
- Level 1
- Old HSK
- Level 1
- Strokes
- 6
- Radical
- 口 +3
- Structure
- Left–right 左右
- Traditional
- 吃
- Common rank
- #327
- Unicode
- U+5403
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
Words with 吃
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 好吃 | tasty; delicious | |
| 好吃 | to be fond of eating; to be gluttonous | |
| 吃饭 | to have a meal; to eat; to make a living | |
| 吃不上 | unable to get anything to eat; to miss a meal | |
| 吃不下 | not feel like eating; be unable to eat any more | |
| 吃不开 | be unpopular; won't work | |
| 好马不吃回头草 | lit. a good horse doesn't turn around and graze the same patch again (idiom); fig. once yo… | |
| 吃不来 | to be unaccustomed to certain food; to not be keen on certain food | |
| 吃得苦中苦，方为人上人 | one cannot achieve glory and wealth without having been through trials and tribulations (p… | |
| 大吃 | to gorge oneself; to pig out | |
| 吃人 | exploitative; oppressive | |
| 吃水 | drinking water; to obtain water (for daily needs); to absorb water; draft (of ship) | |
| 生吃 | to eat raw | |
| 吃得开 | to be popular; to be getting on well; much in demand | |
| 小吃 | street food; snack | |
| 白吃 | to eat without paying; to eat for free | |
| 大吃特吃 | to gorge oneself with food | |
| 合吃族 | lit. joint eaters; a restaurant social gathering, esp. organized online among strangers | |
| 吃老本 | to live off one's past achievements; to rest on one's laurels | |
| 吃法 | way of eating; how something is eaten; how a dish is prepared; the way a dish is to be coo… |
Sound family
Characters sharing the sound component 乞 — compare how they read.