账 (zhàng): account, bill, debt

账 (zhàng) is a Chinese character meaning “account.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 贝 (semantic) and 长 (phonetic). It ranks #2131 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 账 money. Its radical form 贝 (shell) appears in many related characters such as 贵 (guì, expensive), 负 (fù, to bear), 责 (zé, responsibility).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. account
  2. bill
  3. debt

Etymology & Origin

账

pictophoneticmoney

Decomposition: ⿰贝长 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 账

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
账户nounzhàng hù(bank, computer etc) account5
账单nounzhàng dānbill6
账号nounzhàng hàoaccount number5
结账verbjié zhàngto settle accounts4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
混账hùn zhàngshameful
付账verbfù zhàngto settle an account
账本nounzhàng běnaccount book
算账verbsuàn zhàng(accounting) to balance the books
转账verbzhuǎn zhàngto transfer (money to a bank account)
账目nounzhàng mùaccounts
买账mǎi zhàngvariant of 買帳|买帐
旧账nounjiù zhànglit. old account
赖账lài zhàngto renege on a debt
记账verbjì zhàngto keep accounts
赊账shē zhàngto buy or sell on credit
进账verbjìn zhàng(of money) to come into an account
账面nounzhàng miànan item in accounts
欠账verbqiàn zhàngto owe a debt
还账verbhuán zhàngto settle and account
66
Total compounds
20
As first character
71
As last character
9
As middle character

账 appears in 66 compound words: 20 as the first character, 71 as the last, and 9 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 账 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

户hù
0.5856,374 co-occurrences
号hào
0.5086,085 co-occurrences
抖dǒu
0.456112 co-occurrences
银yín
0.444798 co-occurrences
册cè
0.388240 co-occurrences
微wēi
0.387526 co-occurrences
贷dài
0.37968 co-occurrences
转zhuǎn
0.379606 co-occurrences
付fù
0.377382 co-occurrences
买mǎi
0.374178 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习账字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

xué xí zhàng zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Mastering the character "账" requires repeated practice to write it neatly.

StheadlineMar 2026

...钱”?私下退款或被冻结户口 官方教错误转账处理方法

. . . qián ? sī xià tuì kuǎn huò bèi dòng jié hù kǒu guān fāng jiào cuò wù zhuǎn zhàng chǔ lǐ fāng fǎ

... Money"? Private refund or account freezing official teaching wrong transfer handling method

AbcFeb 2026

头条:美智库称中国关联账号干预日本选举 集中攻击高市早苗

tóu tiáo : měi zhì kù chèn zhōng guó guān lián zhàng hào gān yù rì běn xuǎn jǔ jí zhōng gōng jī gāo shì zǎo miáo

Headlines: U.S. think tank says China-related accounts interfere in Japanese elections and focus on attacking Sanae Takaichi

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

8000多亿春节旅游账单,藏着团圆新解法

8 0 0 0 duō yì chūn jié lǚ yóu zhàng dān , zàng zhe tuán yuán xīn jiě fǎ

More than 800 billion yuan of Spring Festival tourism bills hide a new solution to reunion

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

...年香港经济增2.5-3.5% 今年度经营账目恢复盈余

. . . nián xiāng gǎng jīng jì zēng 2 . 5 3 . 5 jīn nián dù jīng yíng zhàng mù huī fù yíng yú

... Hong Kong's economy grew by 2.5-3.5% This year's operating accounts returned to surplus

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

...3.3元增17% 大行估50亿恒生股息入账补资本

. . . 3 . 3 yuán zēng 1 7 dà háng gū 5 0 yì héng shēng gǔ xī rù zhàng bǔ zī běn

... 3.3 yuan increased by 17% The big bank estimated that 5 billion Hang Seng dividends were recorded to supplement capital

Tatoeba

请把它充入我的账户。

Qǐng bǎ tā chōng rù wǒ de zhànghù.

Please add it to my account.

Tatoeba

汤姆拿出钱包付了账。

Tāngmǔ náchū qiánbāo fù le zhàng.

Tom took out his wallet and paid the bill.

Tatoeba

我昨天停用了推特账户。

Wǒ zuótiān tíngyòng le Tuītè zhànghù.

I deactivated my Twitter account yesterday.

Tatoeba

汤姆有多个银行账户。

Tāngmǔ yǒu duōge yínháng zhànghù.

Tom has various bank accounts.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 贝 (money) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhàng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 账 (zhàng) mean in Chinese?
账 (zhàng) primarily means "account." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #2131 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 账 have?
账 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 账?
The radical associated with 账 is 贝 (shell). This radical appears in many characters related to shell.
What are the components of 账?
账 is composed of: 贝 (semantic), 长 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰贝长 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 账?
Common words with 账 include: 账户 (zhàng hù, "(bank, computer etc) account"); 账单 (zhàng dān, "bill"); 混账 (hùn zhàng, "shameful"); 付账 (fù zhàng, "to settle an account"); 账本 (zhàng běn, "account book"). There are over 66 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 账 (zhàng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhàng: 张 (to open up), 帐 ((bound form) curtain), 胀 (swollen), 章 (chapter), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 账 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 账 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 账 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.