zāi
noun #46,209

Meanings

  1. 1 steroid; steroid nucleus (chemistry)

Examples

Dǎngùchún shǔyú zāi lèi huàhéwù.
Cholesterol belongs to the steroid class of compounds.
Xǔduō jīsù yǒu zāi huán jiégòu.
Many hormones have a steroid ring structure.

Tips

usage
is a modern chemistry term coined for the steroid ring (it stacks three -like rings under one top). An old, now rare reading zī named an ancient wine pot and a river, but you will only meet the chemistry sense today.

Components

ideograph
chuān
stream; flowing lines
The three curved top strokes look like the stream graph . In the modern chemistry coinage they are read as the three fused carbon rings sitting on top of the fourth.
ideograph
tián
field; framed grid
here is not a real field. Its boxed grid was borrowed as a picture of the bottom ring of the four-ring steroid skeleton, giving the whole character its chemistry meaning.

Stroke Order

zāi