(chuō): to jab, to poke, to stab

(chuō) is a Chinese character meaning “to jab.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #2717 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, spear. Its radical form (halberd) appears in many related characters such as (, I), (chéng, to succeed), (huò, maybe).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to jab
  2. to poke
  3. to stab

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticspear

Decomposition: ⿰翟戈 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yóu chuōpostmark
穿chuō chuānto puncture
chuō jìstamp
shí jiān chuōtimestamp
chuō gè rphysique
chuō bu zhùnot up to it
chuō de zhùup to it
穿chuō chuān shì yànpuncture test
chuō tòng diǎnto touch a nerve
chuō fèn rto flaunt
chuō cì gǎnpins and needles (in muscle)
shí chuōtimestamp
chuō zistamp
rì chuōdate stamp
chuō rstamp
24
Total compounds
79
As first character
21
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 24 compound words: 79 as the first character, 21 as the last, and 0 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

xiā
0.524198 co-occurrences
yóu
0.457822 co-occurrences
0.4391,518 co-occurrences
zhāng
0.4331,530 co-occurrences
gài
0.405420 co-occurrences
gùn
0.400126 co-occurrences
穿chuān
0.391534 co-occurrences
niàn
0.389936 co-occurrences
0.378474 co-occurrences
jiān
0.3621,218 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

chuō jǐlianggǔHSK 7+

to speak ill of someone behind their back; to backbite

verb

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le chuō zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "戳" in the dictionary.

TvbsApr 2026

...〈Only You〉?派特斯乐团给答案 破科技冷漠:只剩眼睛和手指

. . . O n l y Y o u ? pài tè sī lè tuán gěi dā àn chuō pò kē jì lěng mò : zhī shèng yǎn jīng hé shǒu zhǐ

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

...ETF?00981A靠季配息引热议...破盲点:别只看配息

. . . E T F ? 0 0 9 8 1 A kào jì pèi xī yǐn rè yì . . . chuō pò máng diǎn : bié zhī kàn pèi xī

Yahoo FinanceMar 2026

【财圈识真假】破银行化解不良贷款秘技

cái juān shí zhēn jiǎ chuō pò yín háng huà jiě bù liáng dài kuǎn mì jì

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

台中潭子警银联手保住70万 破网恋投资诈骗话术

tái zhōng tán zǐ jǐng yín lián shǒu bǎo zhù 7 0 wàn chuō pò wǎng liàn tóu zī zhà piàn huà shù

Taichung Tanzi Police and Bank Collaborate to Save 700,000 New Taiwan Dollars, Exposing Online Romance Investment Scam Tactics

TechnewsMar 2026

...断食没有想像中有效?22 项临床试验分析破减肥神话

. . . duàn shí méi yǒu xiǎng xiàng zhōng yǒu xiào ? 2 2 xiàng lín chuáng shì yàn fēn xī chuō pò jiǎn féi shén huà

...Is fasting not as effective as you thought? A meta-analysis of 22 clinical trials debunks the weight-loss myth

Tatoeba

汤姆用叉子我的手臂。

Tāngmǔ yòng chāzi chuō wǒ de shǒubì.

Tom stuck a fork in my arm.

Tatoeba

你的铅笔差点到我的眼睛了。

Nǐ de qiānbǐ chàdiǎn chuō dào wǒ de yǎnjing le.

You nearly poked me in the eye with your pencil.

Tatoeba

她在他的背上了一下。

Tā zài tā de bèi shàng chuō le yīxià.

She stabbed him in the back.

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 戳 (chuō) mean in Chinese?
戳 (chuō) primarily means "to jab." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2717 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 戳 have?
戳 is written with 18 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 戳?
The radical associated with 戳 is 戈 (halberd). This radical appears in many characters related to halberd.
What are the components of 戳?
戳 is composed of: 翟 (phonetic), 戈 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰翟戈 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 戳?
Common words with 戳 include: 邮戳 (yóu chuō, "postmark"); 戳穿 (chuō chuān, "to puncture"); 戳记 (chuō jì, "stamp"); 时间戳 (shí jiān chuō, "timestamp"); 戳个儿 (chuō gè r, "physique"). There are over 24 compound words containing this character.
Is 戳 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 戳 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.