蜘 (zhī): spider (in 蜘蛛)

蜘 (zhī) is a Chinese character meaning “spider (in 蜘蛛).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 虫 (semantic) and 知 (phonetic). It ranks #2964 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 蜘 insect. Its radical form 虫 (insect) appears in many related characters such as 虫 (chóng, insect), 蛛 (zhū, spider (in 蜘蛛)), 蜂 (fēng, bee).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 虫 insect14 strokesFrequency #2964虫 semantic知 phonetic

Definitions

  1. spider (in 蜘蛛)

Etymology & Origin

蜘

pictophoneticinsect

Decomposition: ⿰虫知 (layout: left-right)

Components:虫semantic知phonetic

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
蜘蛛zhī zhūspider
蜘蛛网zhī zhū wǎngcobweb
红背蜘蛛hóng bèi zhī zhūredback spider
蜘蛛星云zhī zhū xīng yúnTarantula Nebula
蜘蛛人zhī zhū rén(coll.) rope access technician
蜘蛛类zhī zhū lèiarachnid
蜘蛛侠zhī zhū xiáSpider-Man, comic book superhero
蜘蛛痣zhī zhū zhìarterial spider
盲蜘蛛máng zhī zhūharvestman (arachnid of the order Opiliones)
9
Total compounds
78
As first character
0
As last character
22
As middle character

蜘 appears in 9 compound words: 78 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 22 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 蜘 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

蛛zhū
0.94751,874 co-occurrences
侠xiá
0.6183,444 co-occurrences
咬yǎo
0.433450 co-occurrences
抱bào
0.412768 co-occurrences
猴hóu
0.407384 co-occurrences
蛋dàn
0.382822 co-occurrences
毒dú
0.358966 co-occurrences
寡guǎ
0.356180 co-occurrences
蟹xiè
0.355156 co-occurrences
漏lòu
0.354270 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

清晨的露水挂在蜘蛛网上，像一串串闪亮的珍珠。

Qīngchén de lùshuǐ guà zài zhīzhū wǎng shàng, xiàng yī chuàn chuàn shǎnliàng de zhēnzhū.

Morning dew hangs on the spider web like strings of shining pearls.

SmzdmMar 2026

...lopark AMK 变形金刚 G1 红蜘蛛

. . . l o p a r k A M K biàn xíng jīn gāng G 1 hóng zhī zhū

三立新聞網Mar 2026

千黛亚和蜘蛛人大聊假老公 喊:很不一样

qiān 黛 yà hé zhī zhū rén dà liáo jiǎ lǎo gōng hǎn : hěn bù yī yàng

Qian Daiya and Spider-Man chat about fake husbands, exclaiming, "It's very different."

HketMar 2026

蜘蛛侠4—汤贺兰《蜘蛛侠:英雄重生》首辑预...

zhī zhū xiá 4 — tāng hè lán zhī zhū xiá : yīng xióng chóng shēng shǒu jí yù . . .

Spider-Man 4—Tang Helan's "Spider-Man: Homecoming" First Trailer...

Character Family

虫 Radical Family — Characters sharing the insect radical

蠢chǔn蛋dàn蝶dié蜂fēng虹hóng蝴hú蜡là螺luó蚂mǎ蜜mì

Related Characters

虫chóng蛛zhū蜂fēng蜜mì蛇shé蚊wén蛙wā蝇yíng蛋dàn知zhī

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhī

之zhī支zhī枝zhī知zhī织zhī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 蜘 (zhī) mean in Chinese?
蜘 (zhī) primarily means "spider (in 蜘蛛)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2964 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 蜘 and 痴?
蜘 (zhī) and 痴 (chī) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 虫 vs 疒 (same 知 component).
How many strokes does 蜘 have?
蜘 is written with 14 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 蜘?
The radical associated with 蜘 is 虫 (insect). This radical appears in many characters related to insect.
What are the components of 蜘?
蜘 is composed of: 虫 (semantic), 知 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰虫知 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 蜘?
Common words with 蜘 include: 蜘蛛 (zhī zhū, "spider"); 蜘蛛网 (zhī zhū wǎng, "cobweb"); 红背蜘蛛 (hóng bèi zhī zhū, "redback spider"); 蜘蛛星云 (zhī zhū xīng yún, "Tarantula Nebula"); 蜘蛛人 (zhī zhū rén, "(coll.) rope access technician"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 蜘 (zhī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhī: 之 ((possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的)), 支 (to support), 枝 (branch, twig), 知 (to know), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 蜘 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 蜘 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 蜘 with real-time feedback

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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.