HSK 5 · Food
零食 língshí “between-meal nibbles” in Chinese
Same in Traditional
What 零食 means
- between-meal nibbles
- snacks
- snack
- nibbles
How to say 零食
零líng2nd tone, rising
食shí2nd tone, rising
零食 in a sentence
How 零食 is built
Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

零língzero
- 雨rain · yǔMeaning part
- 令command · língSound part
雨 hints at the meaning (rain); 令 (líng) hints at the sound. Compare it with líng.

食shíto eat
- 人person · rén
- 良good · liáng
How to write 零食
零 13 strokes · 食 9 strokes
Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

Words related to 零食
Words with 零
Words with 食
粮食liángshi · grain食物shíwù · food素食sùshí · vegetarian food饮食yǐnshí · diet废寝忘食fèiqǐnwàngshí · so absorbed one forgets to eat and sleep
More words: Food & Dining
FAQs
零食 (língshí) means “between-meal nibbles” or “snacks”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it língshí: líng with a 2nd tone, then shí with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 零食 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type lingshi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 零食 from the suggestions. Typing lingshi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
零食 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.
Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.