叉 (chā): fork, pitchfork, prong
叉 (chā) is a Chinese character meaning “fork.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 又 (structural) and 丶 (structural). It ranks #2178 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 叉 a hand 又 grasping an object 丶. Its radical form 又 (again) appears in many related characters such as 友 (yǒu, friend), 又 (yòu, (once) again), 发 (fā, to send out).
Definitions
- fork
- pitchfork
- prong
Etymology & Origin
ideographicA hand 又 grasping an object 丶
Decomposition: ⿴又丶 (layout: full-surround)
Stroke Order
Practice writing 叉 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
HSK Vocabulary with 叉
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 交叉 | jiāo chā | to cross |
| 交叉口 | jiāo chā kǒu | (road) intersection |
| 鱼叉 | yú chā | harpoon |
| 劈叉 | pǐ chà | the splits (move in dancing) |
| 刀叉 | dāo chā | knife and fork |
| 交叉点 | jiāo chā diǎn | junction |
| 分叉 | fēn chà | fork |
| 叉车 | chā chē | forklift truck |
| 母夜叉 | mǔ yè chā | witch |
| 夜叉 | yè chā | yaksha (malevolent spirit) (loanword) |
| 叉腰 | chā yāo | to put one's hands on one's hips |
| 音叉 | yīn chā | tuning fork |
| 三叉神经 | sān chā shén jīng | trigeminal nerve |
| 立体交叉 | lì tǐ jiāo chā | three-dimensional road junction (i.e. involving flyover bridges or underpass tunnels) |
| 交叉学科 | jiāo chā xué kē | interdisciplinary |
叉 appears in 55 compound words: 27 as the first character, 31 as the last, and 42 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 叉 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (5)
Example Sentences
叉字的写法很特别，让我印象深刻。
chā zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .
The way the character "叉" is written is quite unique and left a deep impression on me.
【晒晒咱的镇馆之宝51】叉形骨器:中华文明早期精神世界的重要物证
shài shài zán de zhèn guǎn zhī bǎo 5 1 chā xíng gǔ qì : zhōng huá wén míng zǎo qī jīng shén shì jiè de chóng yāo wù zhèng
医工交叉破局罕见病诊疗 罕见病AI诊断系统Dee...
yī gōng jiāo chā pò jú hǎn jiàn bìng zhěn liáo hǎn jiàn bìng A I zhěn duàn xì tǒng D e e . . .
Medical and Engineering Cross-Breaking Rare Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Rare Disease AI Diagnosis System Dee...
...点 早午下午茶市都有 虾饺/烧卖/凤爪/叉烧包
. . . diǎn zǎo wǔ xià wǔ chá shì dōu yǒu xiā jiǎo shāo mài fèng zhǎo chā shāo bāo
... Order Morning, afternoon tea market has shrimp dumplings/siu mai/chicken feet/char siu buns
汤姆用叉子戳我的手臂。
Tāngmǔ yòng chāzi chuō wǒ de shǒubì.
Tom stuck a fork in my arm.
我们需要多少把叉子？
Wǒmen xūyào duōshao bǎ chāzi?
How many forks do we need?
你想要一把干净的叉子吗？
Nǐ xiǎngyào yī bǎ gānjìng de chāzi ma?
Do you want a clean fork?
他的双脚被交叉捆绑着。
Tā de shuāngjiǎo bèi jiāochā kǔnbǎng zhe.
His legs were crossed.
请给我们两把刀和四把叉。
Qǐng gěi wǒmen liǎng bǎ dāo hé sì bǎ chā.
Give us two knives and four forks, please.
一个警察叉着手看着。
Yī gè jǐngchá chā zhuóshǒu kàn zhe.
A policeman was watching it, with his arms crossed.
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 叉 (chā) mean in Chinese?
How many strokes does 叉 have?
What is the radical of 叉?
What are the components of 叉?
What are common words containing 叉?
What characters sound the same as 叉 (chā)?
Is 叉 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 叉 with real-time feedback
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