zān
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 (in 糌粑) tsampa, roasted barley flour

Examples

HSK 7-9
Zānbā shì Zàngzú de zhǔshí.
Tsampa is the staple food of Tibetans.
HSK 7-9
Tā bǎ zānbā hé sūyóuchá bàn zhe chī.
He mixed the tsampa with butter tea and ate it.

Tips

culture
Used only in 糌粑 (tsampa), roasted highland-barley flour that is the staple food of Tibet. It is eaten kneaded together with 酥油茶 (butter tea) into small dough balls.

Components

radical
rice; grain
The grain radical on the left files this as a milled-grain food. It is fitting: tsampa is ground barley flour, so the rice/grain radical signals 'a powdered cereal' even though the grain is barley, not rice.
phonetic
zǎn
(a surname) (phonetic)
The right side supplies the sound (zǎn → zān). is a transliteration character coined to write the Tibetan word, so the meaning comes entirely from the grain radical while this part only carries the pronunciation.

Stroke Order

zān