noun HSK 5
rice (plant) · paddy
Meaning
稻 refers to the rice plant itself while it's growing in the field, not the grain you eat. It's the agricultural term for the plant that produces rice grains. When Chinese people talk about rice cultivation or rice paddies, they use this character.
Usage
Native speakers use 稻 primarily in agricultural contexts or when discussing rice farming. In everyday conversation about the food itself, people typically say 米饭 (cooked rice) or 大米 (uncooked rice grains), not 稻. This word appears frequently in compound words related to rice farming.
Examples
- 01农民们正在稻田里插秧。.The farmers are transplanting rice seedlings in the rice paddies.
- 02南方地区主要种植水稻。.The southern regions mainly cultivate rice.
Measure words
- 株一株稻
- 棵一棵稻
Common collocations
- 稻田rice field
- 水稻paddy rice
- 种稻to plant rice
- 稻谷unhusked rice
Origin
The character 稻 is a phono-semantic compound with 禾 (grain/cereal) as the semantic radical on the left, indicating it's a type of grain plant, and 舀 providing the phonetic component.