栽 (zāi): to plant, to grow, to insert, to erect (e.g. a bus stop sign), to impose sth on sb

栽 (zāi) is a Chinese character meaning “to plant.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 戈 (phonetic) and 木 (semantic). It ranks #2326 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 栽 tree. Its radical form 木 (tree) appears in many related characters such as 本 (běn, (bound form) root), 机 (jī, machine, opportunity), 条 (tiáo, strip).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to plant
  2. to grow
  3. to insert
  4. to erect (e.g. a bus stop sign)
  5. to impose sth on sb

Etymology & Origin

栽

pictophonetictree

Decomposition: ⿹戈木 (layout: surround-from-upper-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
栽赃verbzāi zāngto frame sb (by planting sth on them)
盆栽verbpén zāito grow (a plant) in a pot
栽培verbzāi péito grow
栽跟头zāi gēn touto fall head over heels
栽种verbzāi zhòngto plant
栽倒verbzāi dǎoto take a fall
移栽verbyí zāito transplant (horticulture, agriculture)
无土栽培wú tǔ zāi péisoilless cultivation (e.g. hydroponics)
一头栽进yī tóu zāi jìnto plunge into
有意栽花花不发,无心插柳柳成阴yǒu yì zāi huā huā bù fā , wú xīn chā liǔ liǔ chéng yīnfig. thin...
栽种机zāi zhòng jīa mechanical planter (for rice, plants)
前人栽树,后人乘凉qián rén zāi shù , hòu rén chéng liángto enjoy the benefits of the hard work of one's predecessors. (idiom)
多栽花少栽刺duō zāi huā shǎo zāi cìtalk nicely and avoid disputes
栽子nounzāi ziseedling
地栽dì zāito grow in open ground (as opposed to pot cultivation 盆栽)
19
Total compounds
47
As first character
21
As last character
32
As middle character

栽 appears in 19 compound words: 47 as the first character, 21 as the last, and 32 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 栽 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

培péi
0.73724,758 co-occurrences
种zhǒng
0.61516,366 co-occurrences
引yǐn
0.61114,828 co-occurrences
赃zāng
0.577242 co-occurrences
盆pén
0.5521,119 co-occurrences
工gōng
0.53415,238 co-occurrences
植zhí
0.4742,178 co-occurrences
秧yāng
0.44080 co-occurrences
育yù
0.43010 co-occurrences
卉huì
0.40092 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

无土栽培wú tǔ zāi péiHSK 7+

soilless cultivation (e.g. hydroponics)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

春天来了,院子里的栽木开始发芽抽枝。

chūn tiān lái le , yuàn zǐ lǐ de zāi mù kāi shǐ fā yá chōu zhī .

Spring has arrived, and the trees in the yard are beginning to sprout and branch out.

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

推植栽的交换站 汐止区长青里植物银行复育有成

tuī zhí zāi de jiāo huàn zhàn xī zhǐ qū cháng qīng lǐ zhí wù yín háng fù yù yǒu chéng

Plant Exchange Station: Ching-Cheng Neighborhood in Xizhi District Successfully Revives Its Plant Bank

三立新聞網Mar 2026

新/徐汉“二度收押”女共犯、司机也栽了

xīn xú hàn èr dù shōu yā nǚ gòng fàn , sī jī yě zāi le

Xin/Xu Han's female accomplice "re-arrested"; driver also caught

WorldjournalFeb 2026

被指开展核试验 中外交部批美“捕风捉影、栽赃抹黑”

bèi zhǐ kāi zhǎn hé shì yàn zhōng wài jiāo bù pī měi bǔ fēng zhuō yǐng , zāi zāng mā hēi

Accused of carrying out nuclear tests, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the United States for "chasing after the wind and planting stolen goods"

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

竹市府提前启动公墓除草作业 赠小盆栽鼓励分流扫墓

zhú shì fǔ tí qián qǐ dòng gōng mù chú cǎo zuò yè zèng xiǎo pén zāi gǔ lì fēn liú sǎo mù

The Zhu City Government started the cemetery weeding operation in advance and gave small potted plants to encourage diversion and tomb sweeping

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

...校57周年 魏家祥:秉持“超越教育”理念栽培社会栋梁

. . . jiào 5 7 zhōu nián wèi jiā xiáng : bǐng chí chāo yuè jiào yù lǐ niàn zāi péi shè huì dòng liáng

... The 57th anniversary of the school Wei Jiaxiang: Adhering to the concept of "beyond education" to cultivate social pillars

Tatoeba

他们想栽培新品种的米来增加粮食生产。

Tāmen xiǎng zāipéi xīn pǐnzhǒng de mǐ lái zēngjiā liángshi shēngchǎn.

They want to increase food production by growing new kinds of rice.

Tatoeba

农夫警告孩子们不要践踏新栽种的作物。

Nóngfū jǐnggào háizimen bù yào jiàntà xīn zāizhòng de zuòwù.

The farmer warned the children not to stomp on the freshly planted crops.

Tatoeba

为了增添节日的气氛 ,那里的人用盆栽装饰他们的家。

Wèile zēngtiān jiérì de qìfēn, nàli de rén yòng pénzāi zhuāngshì tāmen de jiā.

People there decorate their homes with potted flowers to add to the festival atmosphere.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 木 (tree) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced zāi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 栽 (zāi) mean in Chinese?
栽 (zāi) primarily means "to plant." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2326 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 栽 have?
栽 is written with 10 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 栽?
The radical associated with 栽 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 栽?
栽 is composed of: 戈 (phonetic), 木 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿹戈木 with a surround-from-upper-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 栽?
Common words with 栽 include: 栽赃 (zāi zāng, "to frame sb (by planting sth on them)"); 盆栽 (pén zāi, "to grow (a plant) in a pot"); 栽培 (zāi péi, "to grow"); 栽跟头 (zāi gēn tou, "to fall head over heels"); 栽种 (zāi zhòng, "to plant"). There are over 19 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 栽 (zāi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zāi: 在 (to exist), 再 (again), 载 (to carry, to load), 灾 (disaster), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 栽 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 栽 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 栽 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.