眨 (zhǎ): to blink

眨 (zhǎ) is a Chinese character meaning “to blink.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 目 (structural) and 乏 (structural). It ranks #2301 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 眨 two eyes, one open 目 and one shut 乏. Its radical form 目 (eye) appears in many related characters such as 看 (kàn, to look, to see), 真 (zhēn, really), 着 (zhe, -ing, to wear).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to blink

Etymology & Origin

眨

ideographicTwo eyes, one open 目 and one shut 乏

Decomposition: ⿰目乏 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
眨眼adverbzhǎ yǎnto blink
杀人不眨眼phraseshā rén bù zhǎ yǎnto murder without blinking an eye (idiom)
眨巴verbzhǎ bato blink
一眨眼adverbyī zhǎ yǎnin a wink
眼眨毛nounyǎn zhǎ máo(dialect) eyelashes
眨眼睛verbzhǎ yǎn jīngwink
6
Total compounds
50
As first character
0
As last character
50
As middle character

眨 appears in 6 compound words: 50 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 50 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 眨 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

眼yǎn
0.5871,303 co-occurrences
睛jīng
0.49396 co-occurrences
瞬shùn
0.35412 co-occurrences
不bù
0.313300 co-occurrences
敢gǎn
0.31212 co-occurrences
杀shā
0.30928 co-occurrences
间jiān
0.23829 co-occurrences
一yī
0.207176 co-occurrences
人rén
0.201201 co-occurrences
了le
0.16246 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他眨了眨眼睛,似乎在想什么事情。

Tā zhǎ le zhǎ yǎnjing, sìhū zài xiǎng shénme shìqing.

He blinked his eyes, seemingly thinking about something.

爱范儿Sep 2026

车灯采用 L 型灯组,将小蓝灯放在了顶部尖端的位置,支持眨眼动态灯语。

chē dēng cǎi yòng L xíng dēng zǔ , jiāng xiǎo lán dēng fàng zài le dǐng bù jiān duān de wèi zhì , zhī chí zhǎ yǎn dòng tài dēng yǔ .

The headlights feature an L-shaped design, with the small blue light positioned at the very tip of the top edge, and support dynamic "blinking" light signals.

爱范儿Sep 2026

它可能告诉你:“你需要多眨眼了”,或者“你应该休息一下”。

tā kě néng gào sù nǐ : nǐ xū yāo duō zhǎ yǎn le , huò zhě nǐ yīng gāi xiū xī yī xià .

It might tell you, “You need to blink more,” or “You should take a break.”

少数派Aug 2026

一眨眼,有着“中国第一校园动画”称号的《茶啊,二中》,也走到了第六季。

yī zhǎ yǎn , yǒu zhe zhōng guó dì yī jiào yuán dòng huà chèn hào de chá a , èr zhōng , yě zǒu dào le dì liù jì .

In the blink of an eye, *Tea, No. 2 High School*—known as “China’s No. 1 School Animation”—has reached its sixth season.

爱范儿Jul 2026

全系搭载 88 个高自由度运动关节,可实现眨眼、转头、微笑等拟人化微动作。

quán xì dā zài 8 8 gè gāo zì yóu dù yùn dòng guān jié , kě shí xiàn zhǎ yǎn , zhuǎn tóu , wēi xiào děng nǐ rén huà wēi dòng zuò .

The entire series is equipped with 88 high-degree-of-freedom joints, enabling lifelike micro-movements such as blinking, turning the head, and smiling.

中国新闻网·体育May 2026

眨眼间,他便攀至终点。

zhǎ yǎn jiān , tā biàn pān zhì zhōng diǎn .

In the blink of an eye, he had climbed to the finish line.

Tatoeba

人平均一分钟眨几次眼睛?

Rén píngjūn yī fēnzhōng zhǎ jǐcì yǎnjing?

How many times a minute does the average person blink?

Tatoeba

它发生在一眨眼之间。

Tā fāshēng zài yīzhǎyǎn zhījiān.

It happened in the blink of an eye.

Tatoeba

消防员一眨眼的功夫就把火给灭了。

Xiāofángyuán yīzhǎyǎn de gōngfu jiù bǎ huǒ gěi miè le.

The firefighters put out the fire in the blink of an eye.

Tatoeba

女人的思维很有跳跃性:从仰慕到爱慕,从爱慕到结婚都是一眨眼间的事。

Nǚrén de sīwéi hěn yǒu tiàoyuè xìng: cóng yǎngmù dào àimù, cóng àimù dào jiéhūn dōu shì yīzhǎyǎn jiān de shì.

A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhǎ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 眨 (zhǎ) mean in Chinese?
眨 (zhǎ) primarily means "to blink." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2301 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 眨 have?
眨 is written with 9 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 眨?
The radical associated with 眨 is 目 (eye). This radical appears in many characters related to eye.
What are the components of 眨?
眨 is composed of: 目 (structural), 乏 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰目乏 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 眨?
Common words with 眨 include: 眨眼 (zhǎ yǎn, "to blink"); 杀人不眨眼 (shā rén bù zhǎ yǎn, "to murder without blinking an eye (idiom)"); 眨巴 (zhǎ ba, "to blink"); 一眨眼 (yī zhǎ yǎn, "in a wink"); 眼眨毛 (yǎn zhǎ máo, "(dialect) eyelashes"). There are over 6 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 眨 (zhǎ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhǎ: 炸 (to fry, to explode), 扎 (to prick), 诈 (to cheat), 渣 (slag (in mining or smelting)), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 眨 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 眨 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 眨 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.