殖 (zhí): to grow, to reproduce

殖 (zhí) is a Chinese character meaning “to grow.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 歹 (semantic) and 直 (phonetic). It ranks #1429 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 殖 corpse. Its radical form 歹 (death) appears in many related characters such as 死 (sǐ, to die), 殊 (shū, (literary) to kill), 残 (cán, to destroy).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to grow
  2. to reproduce

Etymology & Origin

殖

pictophoneticcorpse

Decomposition: ⿰歹直 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 殖

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
繁殖verbfán zhíto breed6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
殖民地nounzhí mín dìcolony
生殖器nounshēng zhí qìreproductive organ
殖民verbzhí míncolony
生殖verbshēng zhíto reproduce
养殖verbyǎng zhíto raise
养殖场yǎng zhí chǎnglivestock or aquaculture farm
增殖verbzēng zhígrowth
生殖腺nounshēng zhí xiàngonad
殖民主义nounzhí mín zhǔ yìcolonialism
养殖业yǎng zhí yècultivation industry
有性生殖nounyǒu xìng shēng zhísexual reproduction
新殖民主义xīn zhí mín zhǔ yìneocolonialism
生殖系统nounshēng zhí xì tǒngreproductive system
新殖民化xīn zhí mín huàneocolonialization
半封建半殖民地bàn fēng jiàn bàn zhí mín dìsemifeudal and semicolonial (the official Marxist description of China in the late Qing and under the Guomindang)
51
Total compounds
10
As first character
37
As last character
53
As middle character

殖 appears in 51 compound words: 10 as the first character, 37 as the last, and 53 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 殖 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

繁fán
0.65733,625 co-occurrences
民mín
0.61880,704 co-occurrences
垦kěn
0.5211,108 co-occurrences
触chù
0.49910 co-occurrences
养yǎng
0.4876,417 co-occurrences
地dì
0.48044,970 co-occurrences
拓tuò
0.4121,420 co-occurrences
雌cí
0.409958 co-occurrences
泌mì
0.403436 co-occurrences
牙yá
0.4033,072 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

孤雌生殖gūcí shēngzhíHSK 7+

parthenogenesis

noun
生殖器官shēngzhí qìguānHSK 6+

reproductive organ

noun
水产养殖shuǐchǎn yǎngzhíHSK 6+

aquaculture

noun
有性生殖yǒuxìng shēngzhíHSK 6+

sexual reproduction

noun
殖民主义zhímín zhǔyìHSK 6+

colonialism

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

殖字的写法很特别,让我印象深刻。

zhí zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The way the character "殖" is written is quite unique and left a deep impression on me.

99 健康网Feb 2026

男科检查一般检查什么?外生殖器外观和睾丸触诊是基础吗

nán kē jiǎn chá yī bān jiǎn chá shén má ? wài shēng zhí qì wài guàn hé 睾 wán chù zhěn shì jī chǔ ma

What is commonly checked for andrology? Is external genital appearance and testicular palpation fundamental?

99 健康网Feb 2026

男性生殖怎么检查?阴囊彩超能发现精索静脉曲张吗

nán xìng shēng zhí zěn má jiǎn chá ? yīn náng cǎi chāo néng fā xiàn jīng suǒ jìng mài qū zhāng ma

How to check male reproduction? Can scrotal color ultrasound detect varicocele?

99 健康网Feb 2026

男科怎么检查?是否需要脱裤子做外生殖器视诊和触诊

nán kē zěn má jiǎn chá ? shì fǒu xū yāo tuō kù zǐ zuò wài shēng zhí qì shì zhěn hé chù zhěn

How to check andrology? Whether it is necessary to take off the pants for external genital examination and palpation

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...0984B、00959B...债券ETF殖利率仍处高档!法人:配息多、价格稳

. . . 0 9 8 4 B , 0 0 9 5 9 B . . . zhài quàn E T F zhí lì lǜ réng chǔ gāo dàng ! fǎ rén : pèi xī duō , jià gé wěn

... 0984B、00959B... Bond ETF yields are still at a high level! Legal person: many dividends and stable prices

99 健康网Feb 2026

男生小便完甩一下后要不要洗手?接触生殖器后必须清洁吗

nán shēng xiǎo biàn wán shuǎi yī xià hòu yāo bù yāo xǐ shǒu ? jiē chù shēng zhí qì hòu bì xū qīng jié ma

Should boys wash their hands after urinating? Is it mandatory to clean the genitals after touching them?

Tatoeba

尼日利亚曾经是英国的殖民地。

Nírìlìyà céngjīng shì Yīngguó de zhímíndì.

At one time Nigeria was a British colony.

Tatoeba

有人说中国像是俄国的殖民地。

Yǒurén shuōzhòng guó xiàng shì éguó de zhímíndì.

Some say that China was like a Russian colony.

Tatoeba

雅尼画的花看起来像女性生殖器。

Yǎ ní huà de huā kànqǐlai xiàng nǚxìng shēngzhíqì.

Yanni painted flowers that looked like vaginas.

Tatoeba

数月后,牠们回到了北极的繁殖地。

Shùyuè hòu, tā men huídào le běijí de fánzhí de.

A few months later they return to their breeding grounds in the Arctic.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 歹 (corpse) component

歹 Radical Family — Characters sharing the death radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhí

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 殖 (zhí) mean in Chinese?
殖 (zhí) primarily means "to grow." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1429 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 殖 have?
殖 is written with 12 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 殖?
The radical associated with 殖 is 歹 (death). This radical appears in many characters related to death.
What are the components of 殖?
殖 is composed of: 歹 (semantic), 直 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰歹直 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 殖?
Common words with 殖 include: 殖民地 (zhí mín dì, "colony"); 繁殖 (fán zhí, "to breed"); 生殖器 (shēng zhí qì, "reproductive organ"); 殖民 (zhí mín, "colony"); 生殖 (shēng zhí, "to reproduce"). There are over 51 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 殖 (zhí)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhí: 值 (value, be worth), 植 (to plant), 只 (classifier for birds and certain animals, one of a pair, some utensils, vessels etc), 知 (to know), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 殖 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 殖 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 殖 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.