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 | 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 |
| 南辕北辙 | nán yuán běi zhé | to act in a way that defeats one's purpose (idiom) |
| 改弦易辙 | 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[na2 ni3 mei2 ban4 fa3] |
| 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[he2 zhe2] |
| 凭轼结辙 | píng shì jié zhé | to drive non-stop as fast as one can (idiom) |
| 合辙 | 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 | hé zhé zhī fù | lit. a fish in a dried-out rut (idiom) |
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.
...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
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
What does 辙 (zhé) mean in Chinese?
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What are the components of 辙?
What are common words containing 辙?
What characters sound the same as 辙 (zhé)?
Is 辙 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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