辙 (zhé): rut, track of a wheel (Taiwan pr.), (coll.) the direction of traffic, a rhyme (of a song, poem etc)
辙 (zhé) is a Chinese character meaning “rut.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 车 (structural), 育 (structural) and 攵 (structural). It ranks #2841 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 辙 something left 育 by a cart 车 when it moves 攵. Its radical form 车 (cart) appears in many related characters such as 车 (chē, vehicle), 轻 (qīng, light), 辆 (liàng, measure word for vehicles).
Definitions
- rut
- track of a wheel (Taiwan pr.)
- (coll.) the direction of traffic
- a rhyme (of a song, poem etc)
Etymology & Origin
ideographicSomething left 育 by a cart 车 when it moves 攵
Decomposition: ⿲车育攵 (layout: left-middle-right)
Stroke Order
Practice writing 辙 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 重蹈覆辙verb | chóng dǎo fù zhé | lit. to follow in the tracks of an overturned cart (idiom) |
| 没辙verb | méi zhé | at one's wit's end |
| 如出一辙phrase | rú chū yī zhé | to be precisely the same |
| 覆辙noun | fù zhé | the tracks of a cart that overturned |
| 车辙noun | chē zhé | wheel rut |
| 南辕北辙phrase | nán yuán běi zhé | to act in a way that defeats one's purpose (idiom) |
| 改弦易辙phrase | gǎi xián yì zhé | change of string, move out of rut (idiom) |
| 拿你没辙 | ná nǐ méi zhé | see 拿你沒辦法|拿你没办法 |
| 一改故辙 | yī gǎi gù zhé | complete change from the old rut (idiom) |
| 合辙儿 | hé zhé r | erhua variant of 合轍|合辙 |
| 合辙verb | hé zhé | on the same track |
| 找辙 | zhǎo zhé | to look for a pretext |
| 故辙 | gù zhé | rut (made by vehicles) |
| 涸辙之鲋phrase | hé zhé zhī fù | lit. a fish in a dried-out rut (idiom) |
| 苏辙 | sū zhé | Su Zhe (1039-1112), Song writer and politician, one of the Three Su's 三蘇|三苏 and also one of the Eight Giant... |
辙 appears in 17 compound words: 0 as the first character, 88 as the last, and 12 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 辙 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (6)
Showing 5 of 6 idioms containing 辙.
Example Sentences
辙字在日常生活中使用频率较低。
zhé zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ jiào dī .
The character "辙" is not frequently used in everyday life.
结果装完之后发现,这些家电颜色五花八门、边框粗细不一、风格南辕北辙。
jié guǒ zhuāng wán zhī hòu fā xiàn , zhè xiē jiā diàn yán sè wǔ huā bā mén , biān kuàng cū xì bù yī , fēng gé nán yuán běi zhé .
After setting everything up, we found that these appliances came in a wide variety of colors, had frames of varying thicknesses, and were in completely different styles.
这与今天自媒体的流量逻辑如出一辙。
zhè yǔ jīn tiān zì méi tǐ de liú liàng luó jí rú chū yī zhé .
This is exactly the same as the traffic dynamics of today's social media.
硅谷精英想要不受监管的权力,这一论调与一个世纪前的镀金时代寡头如出一辙。
硅 gǔ jīng yīng xiǎng yāo bù shòu jiān guǎn de quán lì , zhè yī lùn diào yǔ yī gè shì jì qián de 镀 jīn shí dài guǎ tóu rú chū yī zhé .
The argument that Silicon Valley elites want unchecked power is identical to that of the oligarchs of the Gilded Age a century ago.
...网友PO寿丰溪河床淤积照 忧重蹈堰塞湖覆辙
. . . wǎng yǒu P O shòu fēng xī hé chuáng yū jī zhào yōu chóng dǎo 堰 sāi hú fù zhé
...Netizens post photos of silt buildup in the Shoufeng River, fearing a repeat of the landslide-dammed lake disaster
川普:不担心会重蹈“越战”覆辙 1小时就可瘫痪伊朗电力
chuān pǔ : bù dān xīn huì chóng dǎo yuè zhàn fù zhé 1 xiǎo shí jiù kě tān huàn yī lǎng diàn lì
Trump: Not Worried About Repeating the 'Vietnam War' Mistake; Could Paralyze Iran's Power Grid in an Hour
听说汤姆不会重蹈覆辙了。
Tīngshuō Tāngmǔ bù huì chóngdǎofùzhé le.
I hear Tom won't do that again.
你一定要确保汤姆和玛丽不再重蹈覆辙了。
Nǐ yīdìng yào quèbǎo Tāngmǔ hé Mǎlì bù zài chóngdǎo-fùzhé le.
You have to make sure that Tom and Mary don't do that again.
你要南辕北辙了。
Nǐ yào nányuánběizhé le.
You're not going in the right direction.
Character Family
车 Radical Family — Characters sharing the cart radical
Frequently Asked Questions
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Is 辙 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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