TongTong
Sign in

食品 (shí pǐn) — food product; foodstuff

Definition

食品 means processed or packaged food products (a category on labels and in stores), broader than the staple grains 粮食 and more commercial than the everyday 食物. Often used in formal/regulatory contexts like 食品安全 (food safety).

noun
food productfoodstuff
Measure word · 种

Examples

  • 食品。
    Zhè jiā gōng sī de shí pǐn zhì liàng hěn hǎo.
    This company's food products are of good quality.
  • 食品。
    Tā fù zé jiǎn chá shí pǐn de ān quán.
    He is responsible for checking the safety of the food products.
  • 食品。
    Chāo shì lǐ yǒu yì zhǒng xīn de shí pǐn.
    There is a new kind of food product in the supermarket.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

食shífood
品pǐnproduct

The sense of 食 as food and 品 as product combine to mean foodstuff.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

  • 亼亼jímouth
  • 皀皀jía bowl of rice on a stand

The form behind 食 shows 亼, a mouth, together with 皀, a bowl of rice on a stand. In modern 食, the bowl part has changed shape.

Open 食 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

品 repeats the same simple shape three times, representing various objects.

Open 品 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 4HSK 2.0 Level 4Food (General)5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

Browse more HSK 4 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.