(zhái): residence, (coll.) to stay in at home, to hang around at home

(zhái) is a Chinese character meaning “residence.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1839 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, roof. Its radical form (roof) appears in many related characters such as (, guest, customer), (jiā, home, family), (, it).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. residence
  2. (coll.) to stay in at home
  3. to hang around at home

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticroof

Decomposition: ⿱宀乇 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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
nounzhù zháiresidence6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
zhù zhái qūresidential area
mín zháihouse
zhái dǐresidence of a high-ranking official
zhái zihouse
sī zháiprivate residence
xiōng zháiinauspicious abode
zhù zhái lóuresidential building
zhái yuànhouse
jiā zháihome
zhái dìresidence
gù zháiformer home
jiù zháiformer residence
zhái dù jiàstaycation
zhái jīngThe Yellow Emperor's Classic on the Feng Shui of Dwellings
zhái nǚfemale geek
30
Total compounds
33
As first character
53
As last character
13
As middle character

appears in 30 compound words: 33 as the first character, 53 as the last, and 13 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.

zhù
0.765235,716 co-occurrences
juān
0.58011 co-occurrences
jiāo
0.53010 co-occurrences
háo
0.51216,559 co-occurrences
wěi
0.49910 co-occurrences
chuáng
0.4622,538 co-occurrences
0.45111,712 co-occurrences
yáng
0.44610 co-occurrences
xiōng
0.4161,878 co-occurrences
0.3875,472 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

fú jiā fàn zháiHSK 6+

lit. to live on a boat; to drift from place to place (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字在日常生活中使用频率较低。

zhái zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ jiào dī .

The character "宅" is not frequently used in everyday life.

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

据报东亚10亿元洽售歌赋山道15号豪

jù bào dōng yà 1 0 yì yuán qià shòu gē fù shān dào 1 5 hào háo zhái

It is reported that East Asia negotiated the sale of a mansion at No. 15 Gofushan Road for 1 billion yuan

三立新聞網Feb 2026

以为黄金!贼闯偷宝盒 他:是我肾结石

yǐ wéi huáng jīn ! zéi chuǎng zhái tōu bǎo hé tā : shì wǒ shèn jié shí

Think it's gold! Thieves break into the house and steal treasure boxes He: It's my kidney stones

Hk01.comFeb 2026

韩马利中山大跟北方煮锅贴过年 圈中老公杜燕歌系清朝皇...

hán mǎ lì zhōng shān dà zhái gēn běi fāng zhǔ guō tiē guò nián juān zhōng lǎo gōng dù yān gē xì qīng cháo huáng . . .

Han Mali's Zhongshan mansion cooks potstickers in the north for the New Year, and her husband Du Yange in the circle is the emperor of the Qing Dynasty...

BastillepostFeb 2026

井田、辕田、名田

jǐng tián , yuán tián , míng tián zhái

Well field, yoke field, famous field house

BastillepostFeb 2026

港姐冠军黄嘉雯豪曝光 去年荣升马主赢254万

gǎng jiě guàn jūn huáng jiā 雯 háo zhái pù guāng qù nián róng shēng mǎ zhǔ yíng 2 5 4 wàn

Miss Hong Kong champion Huang Jiawen's mansion was exposed, and last year's champion won 2.54 million

Tatoeba

围栏应该多高?

Zhùzhái wéilán yīnggāi duō gāo?

How high should a home fence be?

Tatoeba

汤姆的住有一个不错的花园。

Tāngmǔ de zhùzhái yǒu yī gè bù cuò de huāyuán.

Tom's house has a nice garden.

Tatoeba

跟我们的房子比,你的就是个豪

Gēn wǒmen de fángzi bǐ, nǐ de jiùshì gè háozhái.

Compared to our house, yours is a mansion.

Tatoeba

在永恒的邸拉莱耶,长眠的克苏鲁候汝入梦。

Zài yǒnghéng de zhái dǐ lā lái yē, chángmián de Kèsūlǔ hòu rǔ rù mèng.

In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhái

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 宅 (zhái) mean in Chinese?
宅 (zhái) primarily means "residence." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1839 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 宅 have?
宅 is written with 6 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 宅?
The radical associated with 宅 is 宀 (roof). This radical appears in many characters related to roof.
What are the components of 宅?
宅 is composed of: 宀 (semantic), 乇 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱宀乇 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 宅?
Common words with 宅 include: 住宅 (zhù zhái, "residence"); 住宅区 (zhù zhái qū, "residential area"); 民宅 (mín zhái, "house"); 宅邸 (zhái dǐ, "residence of a high-ranking official"); 宅子 (zhái zi, "house"). There are over 30 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 宅 (zhái)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhái: 摘 (to take), 窄 (narrow), 债 (debt), 寨 (stockade). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 宅 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 宅 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.