粘 (zhān) is a Chinese character meaning “to stick”. It is written from 米 (rice (uncooked grains)) and 占 (to divine; to occupy), side by side, and takes 11 strokes.
Build the character for “to stick; to paste”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
米 + 占
Left–right structure
Structure from: makemeahanzi dictionary (decomposition ⿰米占, pictophonetic: semantic 米, phonetic 占) + cjkvi-ids (⿰米占)
Memory aid
Cooked rice (米) grabs and occupies (占) whatever it touches — sticky rice sticks to everything.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
11 strokes
In real words
- 粘贴zhān tiēto paste; to stick on粘 = zhān
Go deeper
All readings
to stick; to paste
to stick; to paste; to adhere to
黏的东西附着在物体上，或者用黏的东西把物体连接起来。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 粘贴zhān tiēto paste; to stick on粘 = zhān
Sound component
占 family tone diff
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 粘 mean?
粘 (zhān) means to stick; to paste; to adhere to.
How do you pronounce 粘?
It is pronounced zhān.
What parts is 粘 made of?
米 (rice (uncooked grains)) and 占 (to divine; to occupy), side by side. The recorded source is: makemeahanzi dictionary (decomposition ⿰米占, pictophonetic: semantic 米, phonetic 占) + cjkvi-ids (⿰米占). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 粘 have?
11. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 粘?
米. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 粘?
Common ones are 粘贴. The reading of 粘 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.