册 (cè): book, booklet, classifier for books

册 (cè) is a Chinese character meaning “book.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 冂 (structural), 冂 (structural) and 一 (structural). It ranks #1515 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, 册 bamboo strips 冂 tied together to form a book. Its radical form 冂 (wide) appears in many related characters such as 再 (zài, again), 内 (nèi, inside), 冒 (mào, to emit).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. book
  2. booklet
  3. classifier for books

Etymology & Origin

册

pictographicBamboo strips 冂 tied together to form a book

Decomposition: ⿻⿰冂冂一 (layout: overlay)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

Practice writing 册 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 册

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
注册verbzhù cèto register5
相册nounxiàng cèphoto album5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
手册nounshǒu cèmanual
小册子nounxiǎo cè zibooklet
史册nounshǐ cèannals
宣传册xuān chuán cècommercial brochure
名册nounmíng cèroll (of names)
册子nouncè zia book
画册nounhuà cèpicture album
纪念册nounjì niàn cècommemorative album
册封verbcè fēngto confer a title upon sb
注册表nounzhù cè biǎoWindows registry
图册nountú cèbook of pictures or charts
集邮册nounjí yóu cèstamp album
点名册diǎn míng cèregister of names
注册会计师nounzhù cè kuài jì shīcertified public accountant
数据手册shù jù shǒu cèdatasheet
38
Total compounds
18
As first character
66
As last character
16
As middle character

册 appears in 38 compound words: 18 as the first character, 66 as the last, and 16 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 册 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

注zhù
0.62832,452 co-occurrences
龟guī
0.507798 co-occurrences
封fēng
0.4977,068 co-occurrences
俱jù
0.4632,718 co-occurrences
万wàn
0.4394,672 co-occurrences
足zú
0.3992,942 co-occurrences
手shǒu
0.3956,322 co-occurrences
账zhàng
0.388240 co-occurrences
户hù
0.3811,258 co-occurrences
图tú
0.3752,262 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

注册商标zhùcè shāngbiāoHSK 5+

registered trademark

noun

Showing 1 of 2 idioms containing 册.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

册字的写法很特别,让我印象深刻。

cè zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The way the character "册" is written is quite unique and has left a deep impression on me.

99 健康网Feb 2026

配送月子餐哪家好?菜单是否由注册营养师联合妇产科医生制定

pèi sòng yuè zǐ cān nǎ jiā hǎo ? cài dān shì fǒu yóu zhù cè yíng yǎng shī lián gě fù chǎn kē yī shēng zhì dìng

Which one is the best for delivering confinement meals? Whether the menu is developed by a registered dietitian in conjunction with an obstetrician-gynecologist

中国军网Feb 2026

镜观·领航丨续写彪炳史册的人间奇迹

jìng guàn lǐng háng 丨 xù xiě 彪 炳 shǐ cè de rén jiān qí jì

Mirror View Pilot丨Continue to write the miracle of the world in the annals of history

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

据报字节跳动在内蒙古新设三家科企 注册资本共28亿人币

jù bào zì jié tiào dòng zài nèi méng gǔ xīn shè sān jiā kē qǐ zhù cè zī běn gòng 2 8 yì rén bì

It is reported that ByteDance has set up three new technology enterprises in Inner Mongolia with a registered capital of 2.8 billion yuan

中国军网Feb 2026

军校成长相册丨纸短情长,家书见证学员成长

jūn jiào chéng cháng xiāng cè 丨 zhǐ duǎn qíng cháng , jiā shū jiàn zhèng xué yuán chéng cháng

Military Academy Growth Album丨The paper is short and the love is long, and the family letter witnesses the growth of the cadets

三立新聞網Feb 2026

中国观光巴士坠湖酿8死 旅团业者未注册

zhōng guó guàn guāng bā shì zhuì hú niàng 8 sǐ lǚ tuán yè zhě wèi zhù cè

China's sightseeing bus fell into the lake and caused 8 deaths, and the tour operator was not registered

Tatoeba

我注册了,现在该干什么呢?

Wǒ zhùcè le, xiànzài gāi gànshénme ne?

What do I have to do now that I'm registered?

Tatoeba

请您在登记册上签名好吗?

Qǐng nín zài dēngjì cè shàng qiānmíng hǎo ma?

Could you please sign the register?

Tatoeba

你能寄宣传册给我吗?

Nǐ néng jì xuānchuáncè gěi wǒ ma?

Could you send me a brochure?

Tatoeba

这个图书馆有超过50000册书。

Zhège túshūguǎn yǒu chāoguò 50000 cè shū.

This library has more than 50,000 books.

Character Family

冂 Radical Family — Characters sharing the wide radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced cè

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 册 (cè) mean in Chinese?
册 (cè) primarily means "book." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1515 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 册 have?
册 is written with 5 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 册?
The radical associated with 册 is 冂 (wide). This radical appears in many characters related to wide.
What are the components of 册?
册 is composed of: 冂 (structural), 冂 (structural), 一 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿻⿰冂冂一 with a overlay layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 册?
Common words with 册 include: 注册 (zhù cè, "to register"); 手册 (shǒu cè, "manual"); 小册子 (xiǎo cè zi, "booklet"); 相册 (xiàng cè, "photo album"); 史册 (shǐ cè, "annals"). There are over 38 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 册 (cè)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cè: 测 (to survey), 策 (policy), 侧 (the side), 厕 ((bound form) restroom). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 册 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 册 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 册 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.