(zào): to make, to build

(zào) is a Chinese character meaning “to make, to build.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #354 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, walk. Its radical form (walk) appears in many related characters such as (biān, side), (guò, to pass, past), (hái, still, return).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to make, to build

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwalk

Decomposition: ⿺辶告 (layout: surround-from-lower-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbzào chéngto bring about5
verbzhì zàoto manufacture5
verbchuàng zàoto create5
verb/nounzào xíngto model6
verbjiàn zàoto construct5
verbgǎi zàoto transform6
verbdǎ zàoto create6
verbsù zàoto model6
verbgòu zàostructure6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
wěi zàoto forge
biān zàoto compile
rén zàoman-made
chuàng zào lìingenuity
zào jiùto bring up
zhì zào shāngmanufacturing company
niē zàoto make up
chuàng zào xìngcreativeness
zhì zào zhěmaker
yíng zàoto build (housing)
zào fǎnto rebel
zào wùluck
访zào fǎng(formal) to visit
zào wù zhǔthe Creator (in religion or mythology)
chuàng zào zhěcreator
100
Total compounds
34
As first character
39
As last character
27
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 34 as the first character, 39 as the last, and 27 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.

chéng
0.565818,466 co-occurrences
jiàn
0.546439,662 co-occurrences
zhù
0.54025,134 co-occurrences
0.52845,018 co-occurrences
niē
0.5238,856 co-occurrences
chuàng
0.515107,868 co-occurrences
gǎi
0.504239,580 co-occurrences
zhì
0.499249,263 co-occurrences
niàng
0.4929,048 co-occurrences
hǎn
0.47945,066 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (13)

bǎnkuài gòuzàoHSK 5+

plate tectonics

noun
bìménzàochēHSK 5+

do something irrespective of external circumstances; to operate in a vacuum

phrase
ēn tóng zài zàoHSK 7+

(idiom) a great life-saving favor

phrase
gòu zào yùn dòngHSK 5+

tectonic movement; movement of earth's crust

phrase
húbiānluànzàoHSK 6+

to fabricate (stories, etc.); to cook up

phrase
jiǎoróuzàozuòHSK 7+

affected; artificial; fakey

phrase
píng kōng niē zàoHSK 7+

fabrication relying on nothing (idiom); frame-up

phrase
rén zào xiān wéiHSK 7+

man-made fiber

phrase
tiānzàodìshèHSK 5+

created by nature; heavenly

phrase
xiàngbìxūzàoHSK 6+

synonym of 向壁虛構 /向壁虚构 (xiàngbìxūgòu, “to make up out of one's head; to fabricate”)

phrase
zàoyáoshēngshìHSK 7+

to cause trouble by spreading rumours

phrase

Showing 11 of 13 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

业是国民经济的重要支柱产业。

Zhìzàoyè shì guómín jīngjì de zhòngyào zhīzhù chǎnyè.

Manufacturing is an important pillar industry of the national economy.

百度新闻Feb 2026

落地上海就过年,浦东机场打多元场景“新年味”

luò dì shàng hǎi jiù guò nián , pǔ dōng jī chǎng dǎ zào duō yuán chǎng jǐng xīn nián wèi

Landing in Shanghai to celebrate the New Year, Pudong Airport creates a multi-scene "New Year's flavor"

百度新闻Feb 2026

...初一,浙大发顶刊论文:用人工智能为膜蛋白“装..

. . . chū yī , zhè dà fā dǐng kān lún wén yòng rén gōng zhì néng wéi mó dàn bái zào zhuāng . .

... First year, ZJU published a top paper on artificial intelligence for membrane prote...

百度新闻Feb 2026

中国智硬核力 春晚·机器·人

zhōng guó zhì zào yìng hé lì chūn wǎn jī qì rén

China's Smart Manufacturing Powerhouse: Spring Festival Gala · Machines · Humans

百度新闻Feb 2026

...疆机器人登上央视春晚,硬核科技点亮高端智之光

. . . jiāng jī qì rén dēng shǎng yāng shì chūn wǎn , yìng hé kē jì diǎn liàng gāo duān zhì zào zhī guāng

Xinjiang Robot Appears on CCTV Spring Festival Gala, Cutting-Edge Technology Illuminates the Future of High-End Intelligent Manufacturing

百度新闻Feb 2026

福建福州打新春文化消费新场景

fú jiàn fú zhōu dǎ zào xīn chūn wén huā xiāo fèi xīn chǎng jǐng

Fuzhou, Fujian Creates New Cultural Consumption Experiences for the Spring Festival

Tatoeba

这个寺庙是何时的?

Zhège sìmiào shì héshí zào de?

When was this temple built?

Tatoeba

了一架模型飞机。

Wǒ zào le yī jià móxíng fēijī.

I made a model plane.

Tatoeba

物价上涨是多方因素成的。

Wùjià shàngzhǎng shì duōfāng yīnsù zàochéng de.

Several factors operated to help prices go up.

Tatoeba

她叫我们不要制噪音。

Tā jiào wǒmen bù yào zhìzào zàoyīn.

She told us not to make a noise.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 造 (zào) mean in Chinese?
造 (zào) primarily means "to make, to build." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #354 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 造 and 靠?
造 (zào) and 靠 (kào) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 辶 vs 非 (same 告 component).
How many strokes does 造 have?
造 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 造?
The radical associated with 造 is 辶 (walk). This radical appears in many characters related to walk.
What are the components of 造?
造 is composed of: 辶 (semantic), 告 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿺辶告 with a surround-from-lower-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 造?
Common words with 造 include: 造成 (zào chéng, "to bring about"); 制造 (zhì zào, "to manufacture"); 创造 (chuàng zào, "to create"); 造型 (zào xíng, "to model"); 建造 (jiàn zào, "to construct"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 造 (zào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zào: 遭 (to meet by chance (usually with misfortune)), 糟 (dregs), 凿 ((bound form) chisel), 早 (early, morning), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 造 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 造 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.