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).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. rut
  2. track of a wheel (Taiwan pr.)
  3. (coll.) the direction of traffic
  4. a rhyme (of a song, poem etc)

Etymology & Origin

辙

ideographicSomething left 育 by a cart 车 when it moves 攵

Decomposition: ⿲车育攵 (layout: left-middle-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

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

WordPinyinMeaning
重蹈覆辙verbchóng dǎo fù zhélit. to follow in the tracks of an overturned cart (idiom)
没辙verbméi zhéat one's wit's end
如出一辙phraserú chū yī zhéto be precisely the same
覆辙nounfù zhéthe tracks of a cart that overturned
车辙nounchē zhéwheel rut
南辕北辙phrasenán yuán běi zhéto act in a way that defeats one's purpose (idiom)
改弦易辙phrasegǎi xián yì zhéchange of string, move out of rut (idiom)
拿你没辙ná nǐ méi zhésee 拿你沒辦法|拿你没办法
一改故辙yī gǎi gù zhécomplete change from the old rut (idiom)
合辙儿hé zhé rerhua variant of 合轍|合辙
合辙verbhé zhéon the same track
找辙zhǎo zhéto look for a pretext
故辙gù zhérut (made by vehicles)
涸辙之鲋phrasehé zhé zhī fùlit. a fish in a dried-out rut (idiom)
苏辙sū zhéSu Zhe (1039-1112), Song writer and politician, one of the Three Su's 三蘇|三苏 and also one of the Eight Giant...
17
Total compounds
0
As first character
88
As last character
12
As middle character

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.

蹈dǎo
0.594166 co-occurrences
辕yuán
0.57056 co-occurrences
覆fù
0.566384 co-occurrences
韵yùn
0.42834 co-occurrences
转zhuǎn
0.393138 co-occurrences
苏sū
0.390138 co-occurrences
如rú
0.389356 co-occurrences
弦xián
0.38836 co-occurrences
岔chà
0.37712 co-occurrences
叉chā
0.37032 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

改弦易辙gǎixiányìzhéHSK 7+

to reform or revamp (a system or policy)

phrase
如出一辙rúchūyīzhéHSK 7+

from the same mold; peas in a pod; exactly alike

phrase
重蹈覆辙chóngdǎofùzhéHSK 7+

to repeat the same mistake; to recommit the same error

verb
涸辙之鲋hézhézhīfùHSK 7+

a person in a desperate situation; a person in a tight spot

phrase
濡沫涸辙rú mò hé zhéHSK 7+

to help each other out in hard times (idiom)

phrase

Showing 5 of 6 idioms containing 辙.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

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.

少数派Aug 2026

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.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

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.

奇客SolidotJul 2026

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.

NewtalkApr 2026

...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

WorldjournalMar 2026

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

Tatoeba

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.

Tatoeba

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.

Tatoeba

你要南辕北辙了。

Nǐ yào nányuánběizhé le.

You're not going in the right direction.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhé

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 辙 (zhé) mean in Chinese?
辙 (zhé) primarily means "rut." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2841 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 辙 have?
辙 is written with 16 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 辙?
The radical associated with 辙 is 车 (cart). This radical appears in many characters related to cart.
What are the components of 辙?
辙 is composed of: 车 (structural), 育 (structural), 攵 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿲车育攵 with a left-middle-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 辙?
Common words with 辙 include: 重蹈覆辙 (chóng dǎo fù zhé, "lit. to follow in the tracks of an overturned cart (idiom)"); 没辙 (méi zhé, "at one's wit's end"); 如出一辙 (rú chū yī zhé, "to be precisely the same"); 覆辙 (fù zhé, "the tracks of a cart that overturned"); 车辙 (chē zhé, "wheel rut"). There are over 17 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 辙 (zhé)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhé: 这 (this), 着 (-ing, to wear), 者 ((after a verb or adjective) one who (is) ...), 哲 (wise), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 辙 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 辙 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 辙 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.