HSK 6 · Verbs

舔 tiǎn “to lick” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 舔 means

  1. to lick
  2. to lap

How to say 舔

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale舔tiǎn3rd tone, dipping

舔 in a sentence

  1. 生活就像是舔仙人掌上的蜂蜜。

    Shēnghuó jiù xiàng shì tiǎn xiānrénzhǎng shàng de fēngmì.

    Life is like licking honey off a cactus.

    Sentence #1749194 from Tatoeba

  2. 其他人已经舔干净锅底了。

    Qítā rén yǐjīng tiǎn gānjìng guōdǐ le.

    The others have already licked the bottom of the pot clean.

    Sentence #13549670 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 亲吻一个抽烟的人就像在舔烟灰缸。

    Qīnwěn yí ge chōuyān de rén jiù xiàng zài tiǎn yānhuīgāng.

    Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.

    Sentence #5091384 from Tatoeba

How 舔 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 舔 (tiǎn) with each of its parts in a different colour
舔tiǎnto lick
  • 舌tongue · shéMeaning part
  • 忝shame · tiǎnSound part

舌 hints at the meaning (tongue); 忝 (tiǎn) hints at the sound. Compare it with tiǎn.

How to write 舔

舔 14 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

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

Words related to 舔

More words: Common Verbs

塌tā · to collapse探望tànwàng · to visit (esp. someone ill or elderly)掏tāo · to take out (from a pocket)淘汰táotài · to eliminate调和tiáohé · to reconcile调剂tiáojì · to adjust调节tiáojié · to adjust挑衅tiǎoxìn · to provoke

FAQs

舔 (tiǎn) means “to lick” or “to lap”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it tiǎn: tiǎn with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 舔 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type tian with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 舔 from the suggestions. Typing tian into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
舔 is an HSK 6 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.