HSK 5 · Food

零食 língshí “between-meal nibbles” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 零食 means

  1. between-meal nibbles
  2. snacks
  3. snack
  4. nibbles

How to say 零食

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale零líng2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale食shí2nd tone, rising

零食 in a sentence

  1. 爆米花是我最喜欢的零食。

    Bàomǐhuā shì wǒ zuì xǐhuan de língshí.

    Popcorn is my favourite snack.

    Sentence #5993948 from Tatoeba

  2. 帮我买点零食吧。

    Bāng wǒ mǎi diǎn língshí ba.

    Buy me some snacks, will you?

    Sentence #9838191 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你如果想减肥,就应该减少两餐之间的零食。

    Nǐ rúguǒ xiǎng jiǎnféi, jiù yīnggāi jiǎnshǎo liǎng cān zhījiān de língshí.

    If you want to lose weight, you should cut down on snacks between meals.

    Sentence #13549631 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

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.

The character 零 (líng) with each of its parts in a different colour
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.

The character 食 (shi) with each of its parts in a different colour
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.

零食 (língshí) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 零食 (língshí). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 零食

Words with 零

Words with 食

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.

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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.