Chinese symbol for “meal”
餐
cān
meal; to eat; classifier for meals
The closest CC-CEDICT match for meal is 餐 (cān), defined as: meal; to eat; classifier for meals.
Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.
Characters and stroke order
Other Chinese words for “meal”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 餐食 | cān shí | meal; food (esp. as provided by a service, e.g. airline, restaurant or institution) |
| 正餐 | zhèng cān | (regular) meal; full meal |
| 饭 (飯) | fàn | cooked rice; measure word: 碗 (wǎn) |
| 餐点 (餐點) | cān diǎn | food; dish |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 餐.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 餐厅 (餐廳) | cān tīng | dining hall; dining room |
| 午餐 | wǔ cān | lunch; luncheon |
| 早餐 | zǎo cān | breakfast; measure word: 份 (fèn), 顿 (dùn), 次 (cì) |
| 餐馆 (餐館) | cān guǎn | restaurant; measure word: 家 (jiā) |
| 晚餐 | wǎn cān | evening meal; dinner; measure word: 份 (fèn), 顿 (dùn), 次 (cì) |
| 套餐 | tào cān | set meal; (fig.) product or service package (e.g. for a cell phone subscription) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “meal”.
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.