Chinese word

吞

Pronunciation

Pinyintūn

Meaning

  • verbswallow

Example

他一口气把药吞了。tā yì kǒu qì bǎ yào tūn le

He swallowed the medicine in one gulp.

Illustration for 吞 (swallow)

More examples

面对批评，他选择把不满吞了下去。miàn duì pī píng tā xuǎn zé bǎ bù mǎn tūn le xià qù

Faced with criticism, he chose to swallow down his dissatisfaction.

Core concept

Something passes from the mouth through the throat and into the stomach in one inward movement.

Common phrases

  • 吞了tūn le

    swallow

  • 吞下去tūn xià qù

    swallow down

  • 吞光tūn guāng

    swallow completely

Similar words

吞下tūn xià: To swallow something down into the stomach, with focus on the downward movement.
吞服tūn fú: To take medicine or food by putting it in the mouth and swallowing it.
吞咽tūn yàn: To swallow through the coordinated action of the mouth and throat.
咽下yàn xià: To swallow something so that it passes through the throat into the stomach.

Definition in Chinese

把固体或液体放入口中并使其通过咽喉进入胃内的动作。bǎ gù tǐ huò yè tǐ fàng rù kǒu zhōng bìng shǐ qí tōng guò yān hóu jìn rù wèi nèi de dòng zuò

Word origin

吞 (tūn, "swallow") is a phono-semantic character in which 口 (kǒu, "mouth") points to the action and 天 (tiān, "sky") mainly supplies the sound.

Usage tips

  • English often uses "take" with medicine, while Chinese uses this verb when the focus is on getting a pill down, making the difference useful in everyday health talk.

Other meanings

  • gulp downverb

Opposites

  • 吐出tǔ chūspit outverb

Related words

  • 吞没tūn mòswallow upverb
  • 吞食tūn shídevourverb

Word lists with this word