Character Familiestop / bottom

菜cài

vegetable; dish; course

菜 means vegetables, a dish, or food served with staple food.

GF0025–2021 character list · 一级

One character pageAll readings and linked senses stay together.

WHOLE GLYPH & STRUCTURE

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Pieces are shown with documented or clearly limited roles; the complete glyph remains standard.

top / bottom · 菜

WHOLE CHARACTER

vegetable; dish; course

菜 means vegetables, a dish, or food served with staple food.

PLANT MEANING SIDE

plants; grass (from 草)

Plant-related meaning clue.

In 菜: plant meaning side ZDIC records the plant side as the meaning clue.

SOUND SIDE

to pick; to gather

Standalone meaning is kept separate from its role in other characters.

In 菜: sound side ZDIC records 采 as the sound side; 采 cǎi and 菜 cài share the syllable with different tone.

càiTone 4

Checking for a Mandarin voice…

Pieces are shown with documented or clearly limited roles; the complete glyph remains standard.

花 huā — Shares a documented or visibly limited component with 菜.

藏 cáng, zàng — Shares a documented or visibly limited component with 菜.

茶 chá — Shares a documented or visibly limited component with 菜.

草 cǎo — Shares a documented or visibly limited component with 菜.

Sources & verification

ZDIC single character entry — matched zdic; fields: pinyin, primary_definition, structure_strokes. Body SHA256: bf7f3673c121c93e80743b019dd60c83bc58ffe68a1a08773c1a40b0b1ef3e91. Captured 2026-11-01T01:21:34.147Z.
商务印书馆 Xinhua Dictionary official material — reference only; fields: edition, publication background. No specific character entry was obtained; dictionary fields are not covered.