HSK 6 · Verbs

糟蹋 zāotà “to waste” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 糟蹋 means

  1. to waste
  2. to ruin
  3. to spoil
  4. to wreck
  5. to insult
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to humiliate

How to say 糟蹋

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale糟zāo1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale蹋tà4th tone, falling

糟蹋 in a sentence

  1. 别糟蹋粮食。

    Bié zāotà liángshi.

    Don’t waste food.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 这么好的布，被他做坏了，真糟蹋。

    Zhème hǎo de bù, bèi tā zuòhuài le, zhēn zāotà.

    Such good cloth, and he ruined it; what a waste.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 糟蹋 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 糟 (zāo) with each of its parts in a different colour
糟zāodregs
  • 米rice · mǐMeaning part
  • 曹ministers · cáoSound part

米 hints at the meaning (rice); 曹 (cáo) hints at the sound. Compare it with zāo.

The character 蹋 (tà) with each of its parts in a different colour
蹋tàto step on
  • 足foot · zúMeaning part
  • 日sun · rìSound part
  • 羽feather · yǔ

足 hints at the meaning (foot); 日 (rì) hints at the sound. Compare it with tà.

How to write 糟蹋

糟 17 strokes · 蹋 17 strokes

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

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

Words related to 糟蹋

Words with 糟

糟糕zāogāo · too bad

More words: Common Verbs

砸zá · to smash宰zǎi · to slaughter栽培zāipéi · to cultivate遭受zāoshòu · to suffer遭殃zāoyāng · to suffer disaster遭遇zāoyù · to encounter赠送zèngsòng · to give as a present增添zēngtiān · to add

FAQs

糟蹋 (zāotà) means “to waste” or “to ruin”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it zāotà: zāo with a 1st tone, then tà with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 糟蹋 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zaota with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 糟蹋 from the suggestions. Typing zaota into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
糟蹋 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.