闸 (zhá): gate, brake

闸 (zhá) is a Chinese character meaning “gate, brake.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 门 (semantic) and 甲 (phonetic). It ranks #2865 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 闸 gate. Its radical form 门 (gate) appears in many related characters such as 门 (mén, door, gate), 间 (jiān, room, between), 闪 (shǎn, to flash, to dodge).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. gate, brake

Etymology & Origin

闸

pictophoneticgate

Decomposition: ⿵门甲 (layout: surround-from-top)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
闸门nounzhá ménsluice gate
气闸qì zhápneumatic brake
电闸noundiàn zháelectric switch
闸口nounzhá kǒuopen sluice gate
水闸nounshuǐ zhásluice
跳闸verbtiào zhá(of a circuit breaker or switch) to trip
车闸nounchē zhábrake (of a car, bicycle etc)
船闸nounchuán zhánavigation lock
气动闸qì dòng zhápneumatic brake
进水闸jìn shuǐ zháwater intake
闸道zhá dào(computing) gateway (Tw)
手闸nounshǒu zháhandbrake
闸机nounzhá jīturnstile
晶闸管nounjīng zhá guǎn(electronics) silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR)
大闸蟹noundà zhá xièChinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis)
18
Total compounds
33
As first character
56
As last character
11
As middle character

闸 appears in 18 compound words: 33 as the first character, 56 as the last, and 11 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 闸 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

泄xiè
0.488344 co-occurrences
机jī
0.4643,438 co-occurrences
检jiǎn
0.447766 co-occurrences
搂lōu
0.44210 co-occurrences
坝bà
0.440290 co-occurrences
船chuán
0.4391,378 co-occurrences
门mén
0.4351,566 co-occurrences
拦lán
0.428110 co-occurrences
晶jīng
0.423478 co-occurrences
蟹xiè
0.419142 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

水闸控制着河流的水位,防止洪水。

Shuǐzhá kòngzhì zhe héliú de shuǐwèi, fángzhǐ hóngshuǐ.

The sluice gate controls the river water level to prevent floods.

東方日報Mar 2026

【单T过关】梓忠:品德宝宝试闸点到即止

dān T guò guān 梓 zhōng : pǐn dé bǎo bǎo shì zhá diǎn dào jí zhǐ

[Single Win] Zi Zhong: Virtue Baby's trial run was brief

東方日報Mar 2026

嘉应高升试闸险胜 潘顿自制彩衣外套

jiā yīng gāo shēng shì zhá xiǎn shèng pān dùn zì zhì cǎi yī wài tào

Jia Ying Gao Sheng Narrowly Wins Trial Race; Poon Tung Designs His Own Color-Coordinated Jacket

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Mar 2026

复旦团队发现疼痛向负面情绪升级的“闸门”

fù dàn tuán duì fā xiàn téng tòng xiàng fù miàn qíng xù shēng jí de zhá mén

Fudan University team discovers the "gateway" through which pain escalates into negative emotions

東方日報Mar 2026

希斯:本身想球星试两个闸先复出 不过......

xī sī : běn shēn xiǎng qiú xīng shì liǎng gè zhá xiān fù chū bù guò . . . . . .

Heath: I was hoping the star player would try out both full-back positions before making his comeback, but...

Hk01.comMar 2026

台湾疯抢杜拜朱古力蛋糕登CNN 丧尸式钻闸狂奔抢购 网民轰丢架

tái wān fēng qiǎng dù bài zhū gǔ lì dàn gāo dēng C N N sāng shī shì zuān zhá kuáng bēn qiǎng gòu wǎng mín hōng diū jià

Taiwan's Rush for Dubai Chocolate Cake Makes CNN Headlines; Zombie-Like Crowds Dash Through Turnstiles to Snatch Up Stock; Netizens Slam the Disgraceful Behavior

Tatoeba

愚蠢骑着没有闸的单车。

Yúchǔn qí zhe méiyǒu zhá de dānchē.

Stupidity is riding a bike that doesn't have brakes.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 门 (gate) component

门 Radical Family — Characters sharing the gate radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhá

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 闸 (zhá) mean in Chinese?
闸 (zhá) primarily means "gate, brake." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2865 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 闸 and 押?
闸 (zhá) and 押 (yā) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 门 vs 扌 (same 甲 component).
How many strokes does 闸 have?
闸 is written with 8 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 闸?
The radical associated with 闸 is 门 (gate). This radical appears in many characters related to gate.
What are the components of 闸?
闸 is composed of: 门 (semantic), 甲 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿵门甲 with a surround-from-top layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 闸?
Common words with 闸 include: 闸门 (zhá mén, "sluice gate"); 气闸 (qì zhá, "pneumatic brake"); 电闸 (diàn zhá, "electric switch"); 闸口 (zhá kǒu, "open sluice gate"); 水闸 (shuǐ zhá, "sluice"). There are over 18 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 闸 (zhá)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhá: 炸 (to fry, to explode), 扎 (to prick), 诈 (to cheat), 眨 (to blink), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 闸 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 闸 and the traditional form is 牐.

Practice writing 闸 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.