IDENTITY
菜càivegetable; dish
HSK 1Top 460
CORE MEANING
vegetable; dish
- Part of speech
- noun
- Register
- neutral
Senses
- 1.vegetableHSK1
- 2.dish (of food)HSK1
FORM & BREAKDOWN
- Radical
- 艹grass radical (cǎo)
- strokes
- 11
- Structure
- top-bottom compound
- IDS sequence
- ⿱艹采
- plants
- gives the sound cài (historical)
USAGE
Common words
蔬菜shūcàivegetables
菜单càidānmenu
白菜báicàiChinese cabbage
Graded examples
妈妈做了很多菜。Māma zuò le hěn duō cài.HSK2
Mom cooked many dishes.
RELATIONS
Lookalike — don’t mix up
- 采
LEARNING
Memory aid
Plants (艹) gathered (采) from the field — vegetables.
- HSK version
- 3.0
- Frequency rank
- #460
- Memory aid
- memory-aid
TRUST & SOURCES
- Reviewed by
- AI-assisted editorial review
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-15
Sources
- CC-CEDICT 2026-01-01
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