札 (zhá): thin piece of wood used a writing tablet (in ancient China), a kind of official document (in former times)

札 (zhá) is a Chinese character meaning “thin piece of wood used a writing tablet (in ancient china).” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 木 (structural) and 乚 (structural). It ranks #3548 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. thin piece of wood used a writing tablet (in ancient China)
  2. a kind of official document (in former times)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
札幌proper-nounzhá huǎngSapporo, Japan
札记nounzhá jìreading notes
札达proper-nounzhá dásee 札達縣|札达县
札格雷布zhá gé léi bù(Tw) Zagreb, capital of Croatia
波札那proper-nounbō zhá nà(Tw) Botswana
札格瑞布proper-nounzhá gé ruì bù(Tw) Zagreb, capital of Croatia
札马鲁丁zhá mǎ lǔ dīngsee 紮馬剌丁|扎马剌丁
莫札特proper-nounmò zhá tèWolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Austrian composer (Tw)
手札nounshǒu zhá(literary) personal letter
信札nounxìn zháletter
吞米桑布札tūn mǐ sāng bù zháTunmi Sanghuzha (6th century AD), originator of the Tibetan script
札达县zhá dá xiànZanda, a county in Ngari Prefecture 阿里地區|阿里地区, Tibet
书札nounshū zháletter
札马剌丁zhá mǎ lá dīngsee 紮馬剌丁|扎马剌丁
玉札yù zhágreat burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis), a plant whose root is used in TCM
16
Total compounds
50
As first character
38
As last character
13
As middle character

札 appears in 16 compound words: 50 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 13 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

札格瑞布Zhágéruìbù

Zagreb (the capital city of Croatia)

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这片森札里生活着许多珍稀的野生动物。

zhè piàn sēn zhá lǐ shēng huó zhe xǔ duō zhēn xī de yě shēng dòng wù .

This forest is home to many rare wild animals.

少数派May 2026

从北京到札幌,往返直飞机票只要 2000 出头,从家里出发转机北京,价格一样。

cóng běi jīng dào zhá 幌 , wǎng fǎn zhí fēi jī piào zhī yāo 2 0 0 0 chū tóu , cóng jiā lǐ chū fā zhuǎn jī běi jīng , jià gé yī yàng .

A round-trip direct flight from Beijing to Sapporo costs just over 2,000, and the price is the same if you fly from home with a layover in Beijing.

SmzdmMar 2026

...rnia,来判断你的耳机好坏。#波哥听音札记#hifi#耳机推荐#加州旅馆 #音质...

. . . r n i a , lái pàn duàn nǐ de ěr jī hǎo huài . bō gē tīng yīn zhá jì h i f i ěr jī tuī jiàn jiā zhōu lǚ guǎn yīn zhì . . .

...rnia, to determine the quality of your headphones. #Boge's Listening Notes #hifi #headphone recommendations #Hotel California #sound quality...

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 札 (zhá) mean in Chinese?
札 (zhá) primarily means "thin piece of wood used a writing tablet (in ancient china)." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3548 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 札 and 厚?
札 (zhá) and 厚 (hòu) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 札 (thin) vs 厚 (thick).
How many strokes does 札 have?
札 is written with 5 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 札?
The radical associated with 札 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 札?
札 is composed of: 木 (structural), 乚 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰木乚 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 札?
Common words with 札 include: 札幌 (zhá huǎng, "Sapporo, Japan"); 札记 (zhá jì, "reading notes"); 札达 (zhá dá, "see 札達縣|札达县"); 札格雷布 (zhá gé léi bù, "(Tw) Zagreb, capital of Croatia"); 波札那 (bō zhá nà, "(Tw) Botswana"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
Is 札 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 札 and the traditional form is 剳.

Practice writing 札 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.