Course Flashcards Sentences Texts Games
Tools
My Decks
Manage custom decks
Hanzi
Characters & strokes
Dictionary
Search everything
LearnChinese.ai - Learn Mandarin Chinese Online LearnChinese.ai - Learn Mandarin Chinese Online
LearnChinese.ai - Learn Mandarin Chinese Online LearnChinese.ai - Learn Mandarin Chinese Online
Course Flashcards Sentences Texts Games
My Decks
Manage custom decks
Hanzi
Characters & strokes
Dictionary
Search everything
Login Sign Up
Back to Dictionary
菜
cài
1. dish (type of food)
2. vegetable
3. cuisine
4. CL:[[盤|盘<pán>]], [[道<dào>]]
5. (coll.) (one's) type
HSK 1 Very Common • Top 2% ✏️ 12 strokes

Character Breakdown (Single character)

菜
cài
vegetables; order, dish; food
HSK 1 11 丶

Compound Words (20)

上菜
shàngcài
to serve, also to put on plate
主菜
zhǔcài
main book
干菜
gāncài
dried vegetable
什菜
shícài
mixed vegetables
做菜
zuòcài
to cook
冬菜
dōngcài
preserved dried cabbage or mustard greens
冷菜
lěngcài
cold dish
剩菜
shèngcài
leftovers (food)
包菜
bāocài
cabbage
台菜
Táicài
Taiwanese food
名菜
míngcài
famous dishes
国菜
guócài
national food specialty
堇菜
jǐncài
violet (botany)
小菜
xiǎocài
appetizer
川菜
Chuāncài
Sichuan or Szechuan cuisine
徽菜
Huīcài
Anhui cuisine
扬菜
Yángcài
Jiangsu cuisine
择菜
zháicài
to pick the edible part of vegetables
时菜
shícài
seasonal vegetable
椰菜
yēcài
cabbage

Example Sentences (1)

今天怎么做了这么多菜?
Jīntiān zěnme zuò le zhème duō cài?
Why did you cook so many dishes today?
Text 3

Metadata

Category
Chinese
HSK Character Level
1
Character Frequency Rank
1,265
Word Frequency Rank
1,512 of 84,292

LearnChinese.ai

Master Mandarin

Site

About Custom Decks Accounts & Social Contact

Editorial

Learning Resources Blog HSK 2.0 vs 3.0

Legal

Privacy Policy Terms of Service

Support

❤️ Donate

© 2026 LearnChinese.ai. All rights reserved.