HSK 6 · Food
素食 sùshí “vegetarian food” in Chinese
Same in Traditional
What 素食 means
- vegetarian food
- to eat a vegetarian diet
How to say 素食
素sù4th tone, falling
食shí2nd tone, rising
素食 in a sentence
素食汉堡味道鲜美。
Sùshí hànbǎo wèidao xiānměi.
The veggie burger was full of flavour.
Sentence #13543137 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted
How 素食 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.

素sùraw silk
- 龶part of the character
- 糸silk · mì

食shíto eat
- 人person · rén
- 良good · liáng
How to write 素食
素 10 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 素食
Words with 素
因素yīnsù · element朴素pǔsù · plain元素yuánsù · element素质sùzhì · quality要素yàosù · key element维生素wéishēngsù · vitamin
Words with 食
粮食liángshi · grain零食língshí · between-meal nibbles食物shíwù · food饮食yǐnshí · diet废寝忘食fèiqǐnwàngshí · so absorbed one forgets to eat and sleep
More words: Food & Dining
FAQs
素食 (sùshí) means “vegetarian food” or “to eat a vegetarian diet”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it sùshí: sù with a 4th 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. 素食 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type sushi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 素食 from the suggestions. Typing sushi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
素食 is an HSK 6 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.