How to Write 胨 (dòng) — Meaning “peptone”

Think of 月 (meat) and 东 (east) as "eastern meat" — peptone is often used in lab experiments from animal proteins. Alternatively, say "dòng" sounds like "dong" and imagine a bell made of meat protein to trigger the memory.

Write the left radical 月 with three strokes (vertical left, horizontal fold hook, two horizontals) and keep it narrow. The right part 东 has five strokes: horizontal, left-falling, right-falling, vertical hook, and a dot — do not confuse the vertical hook with a vertical line, and make sure the dot is small and centered.

胨 and 朊 both use the meat radical but have different right parts: 东 vs 元. 胨 means peptone (digested protein), while 朊 means simple protein. 朋 is made of two 月 radicals side by side and means friend; it has no connection to protein. Visually, 朋 is symmetric, while 胨 has only one 月.

胨 is almost exclusively used in scientific contexts such as biology and chemistry, especially in the word 蛋白胨 (dàn bái dòng, peptone). You may see it on lab equipment or in textbooks about microbial culture media. It is not found in everyday conversation or HSK vocabulary.

Common words containing 胨 include: 蛋白胨 (dàn bái dòng) — peptone; 胨化 (dòng huà) — peptonization; 胨液 (dòng yè) — peptone solution.