DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

芝麻菜

Mandarin · pinyin zhī ma cài

(botany) arugula; rocket; roquette (subspecies Eruca vesicaria sativa)

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

芝: zhī · sesame; a purplish or brown mushroom thought to have miraculous powers; 'a divine and felicitous plant' (Karlgren)
麻: má · hemp, jute, flax; sesame; Kangxi radical 200
菜: cài · vegetables; dish, order; food

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–5–4 · zhi1 ma5 cai4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

3character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

芝麻菜 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

rocket; arugula; rocket salad

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack