How to Write 滓 (zǐ) — Meaning “dregs; residue”

Imagine a bowl of water (氵) with heavy, dirty particles sinking to the bottom — these are the "dregs" (滓). The right side 宰 looks like a person sitting on a stool (宀 + 辛) watching the waste settle, helping you recall "sediment" or "scum."

Pay attention to the right side 宰: the top is 宀 (a roof) and the bottom is 辛 (a pungent spice character), not 幸 (happiness). The water radical 氵 should be written with three dots that flow downward, and the overall character is balanced left-to-right. A common mistake is to confuse the bottom of 宰 with 辛 (which has a horizontal line across the middle).

涪 (fú) means the name of a river in Sichuan and has the phonetic component 咅 (pǒu), not 宰. 涫 (guān) means "to boil" and contains the phonetic component 官 (guān). Visually, 滓 has 13 strokes while 涪 has 11 and 涫 has 11; their right sides are completely different. In meaning, 滓 specifically refers to waste residue, not a river or boiling action.

滓 appears in formal or literary contexts, especially in words like 渣滓 (zhā zǐ) meaning "scum" or "dregs" — often used metaphorically to describe worthless or evil people. It is also found in scientific or industrial terms like 沉滓 (sediment) and 废滓 (waste residue). Due to its negative connotations, it is rarely used in everyday conversation but appears in news or written critiques.

Common words containing 滓 include: 渣滓 (zhā zǐ) — Waste or scum; 沉滓 (chén zǐ) — dregs; sediment; refuse; 废滓 (fèi zǐ) — Waste residue; dross.