(zhā): to prick, to run or stick (a needle etc) into, mug or jug used for serving beer (loanword from "jar")

(zhā) is a Chinese character meaning “to prick.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1403 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a hand 扌 tying a bundle with string 乚. Its radical form (hand) appears in many related characters such as (shǒu, hand), (, hit, make), (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to prick
  2. to run or stick (a needle etc) into
  3. mug or jug used for serving beer (loanword from "jar")

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA hand 扌 tying a bundle with string 乚

Decomposition: ⿰扌乚 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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
zhēng zháto struggle
bāo zāvariant of 包紮|包扎[bao1 za1]
zhù zhāto station
mò zhā tèWolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Austrian composer
jié zāto tie up
zhā yíngto camp
chuí sǐ zhēng zhádeathbed struggle
zhā gēnto take root
zhā shistrong
zhā zhēnto give or have an acupuncture treatment
zhā yī ěrZaire, former name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
bā ěr zhā kèHonoré de Balzac (1799-1850), French novelist, author of series La comédie humaine
zhā yǎngarish
qǐ lì mǎ zhā luó shānMt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania
wěn zhā wěn dǎto go steady and strike hard (in fighting)
66
Total compounds
52
As first character
21
As last character
27
As middle character

appears in 66 compound words: 52 as the first character, 21 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.

zhèng
0.6625,502 co-occurrences
zhù
0.60534,464 co-occurrences
fěn
0.56910 co-occurrences
ěr
0.46339,468 co-occurrences
cāng
0.4382,694 co-occurrences
0.43610,170 co-occurrences
0.43036,354 co-occurrences
ā
0.42422,956 co-occurrences
0.42319,932 co-occurrences
0.41915,354 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

ānyíngzhāzhàiHSK 7+

to pitch a camp; to camp

phrase
Bā'ěrzhākèHSK 6+

a transliteration of the French surname Balzac

chuí sǐ zhēng zháHSK 6+

deathbed struggle; final struggle (idiom)

phrase
wěnzhāwěndǎHSK 6+

to go ahead steadily and strike sure blows (in war); to go about things steadily and surely

phrase
Zhālàinuò'ěrHSK 6+

Jalainur, Zhalainuo'er (a district of Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, China)

Showing 5 of 6 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

出你的证件,配合我们的工作。

qǐng zhā chū nǐ de zhèng jiàn , pèi gě wǒ men de gōng zuò .

Please present your identification and cooperate with our work.

東方日報Feb 2026

内衣照曝光 浑圆美胸一览无遗

娜 zhā nèi yī zhào pù guāng hún yuán měi xiōng yī lǎn wú yí

Nazha's underwear photos are exposed, and the round and beautiful breasts are at a glance

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Feb 2026

黄春罐:阿末希有机会担任首相吗?

huáng chūn guàn : ā mò zhā xī yǒu jī huì dān rèn shǒu xiāng ma ?

Huang Chuncan: Does Ahmad Zahid have a chance to be prime minister?

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

希音将继续根广东 投超百亿元建设智慧供应链总部

xī yīn jiāng jì xù zhā gēn guǎng dōng tóu chāo bǎi yì yuán jiàn shè zhì huì gōng yīng liàn zǒng bù

Shein will continue to take root in Guangdong and invest more than 10 billion yuan to build a smart supply chain headquarters

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

外国游客堆北京过年 中国年味儿成功圈粉全球游客

wài guó yóu kè zhā duī běi jīng guò nián zhōng guó nián wèi ér chéng gōng juān fěn quán qiú yóu kè

Foreign tourists gather in Beijing for the New Year, and the Chinese New Year flavor has successfully attracted tourists from all over the world

百度新闻Feb 2026

坐拥百万粉丝的他,为何归零重启,一头进金山田野?

zuò yōng bǎi wàn fěn sī de tā , wéi hé guī líng chóng qǐ , yī tóu zhā jìn jīn shān tián yě ?

With millions of fans, why did he return to zero and restart and plunge headlong into the fields of Jinshan?

Tatoeba

你喜欢莫特的音乐吗?

Nǐ xǐhuan Mòzhātè de yīnyuè ma?

Do you like Mozart's music?

Tatoeba

穆阿迈尔·卡菲是个权力狂。

Mù'āmài'ěr · Kǎzhāfēi shì ge quánlìkuáng.

Muammar Gaddafi is a megalomaniac.

Tatoeba

我挣着挤出地铁。

Wǒ zhēngzhá zhe jǐchū dìtiě.

I struggled to get out of the subway.

Tatoeba

我用丝带在头上了一个马尾辫。

Wǒ yòng sīdài zài tóushàng zā le yī gè mǎwěibiàn.

I used a ribbon to tie my hair into a ponytail.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhā

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 扎 (zhā) mean in Chinese?
扎 (zhā) primarily means "to prick." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1403 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 扎 have?
扎 is written with 4 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 扎?
The radical associated with 扎 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 扎?
扎 is composed of: 扌 (structural), 乚 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌乚 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 扎?
Common words with 扎 include: 挣扎 (zhēng zhá, "to struggle"); 包扎 (bāo zā, "variant of 包紮|包扎[bao1 za1]"); 驻扎 (zhù zhā, "to station"); 莫扎特 (mò zhā tè, "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Austrian composer"); 结扎 (jié zā, "to tie up"). There are over 66 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 扎 (zhā)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhā: 渣 (slag (in mining or smelting)), 闸 (gate, brake), 眨 (to blink), 诈 (to cheat), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 扎 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 扎 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.