(zhì): character, nature, quality

(zhì) is a Chinese character meaning “character.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural). It ranks #404 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, shell. Its radical form (shell) appears in many related characters such as (guì, abbr. for Guizhou Province 貴州|贵州[Gui4 zhou1]), (, to bear), (, responsibility).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. character
  2. nature
  3. quality

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticshell

Decomposition: ⿸厂⿱十贝 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Components:structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounwù zhìmatter5
zhì yíto call into question6
nounzhì liàng(physics) mass4
nounběn zhìessence5
nounqì zhìpersonality traits6
nounpǐn zhìcharacter5
noundàn bái zhìprotein6
nounxìng zhìnature5
nounshí zhìsubstance6
nounsù zhìinner quality6
verbbiàn zhìto degenerate6
adjectiveyōu zhìexcellent quality5
noundì zhìgeology6
nouncái zhìtexture of timber6
nounbǎo zhì qīshelf life5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
rén zhìhostage
tè zhìcharacteristic
qián zhìpotential
zhì wènto question
liè zhìshoddy
duì zhìto confront (in court etc)
zhì xúnto question
pí zhìcortex
diàn jiě zhìelectrolyte
zī zhìaptitude
tǐ zhì(a person's) constitution
zhì dìtexture
zhì gǎnrealism (in art)
yīn zhìtone
zhì shùprime number
100
Total compounds
25
As first character
66
As last character
9
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 25 as the first character, 66 as the last, and 9 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

dàn
0.57537,536 co-occurrences
0.57053,502 co-occurrences
liàng
0.542135,455 co-occurrences
xìng
0.522141,510 co-occurrences
0.497129,072 co-occurrences
yōu
0.45915,000 co-occurrences
zhǐ
0.4507,320 co-occurrences
bái
0.43639,462 co-occurrences
cái
0.42915,672 co-occurrences
zhī
0.4224,068 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

tiānshēnglìzhìHSK 4+

to be a natural beauty; to be smart and beautiful

phrase

Showing 1 of 2 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

zhì zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character "质" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

99 健康网Feb 2026

男生小便完甩一下会不会影响生育?与精子量无关对吗

nán shēng xiǎo biàn wán shuǎi yī xià huì bù huì yǐng xiǎng shēng yù ? yǔ jīng zǐ zhì liàng wú guān duì ma

Will a boy pee after urinating affect fertility? It has nothing to do with sperm quality, right?

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...竟买到“空心泡芙” 一票会员认证:分店品不一

. . . jìng mǎi dào kōng xīn pāo 芙 yī piào huì yuán rèn zhèng : fēn diàn pǐn zhì bù yī

... I actually bought a "hollow puff" with a ticket of membership certification: the quality of the branch is different

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

摩通:保荐人新规无碍优企上市

mó tōng : bǎo jiàn rén xīn guī wú ài yōu zhì qǐ shàng shì

Morgan Stanley: The new sponsor regulations do not hinder the listing of high-quality enterprises

百度新闻Feb 2026

高标准高量推进雄安新区建设现代化城市丨雄安新区新...

gāo biāo zhǔn gāo zhì liàng tuī jìn xióng ān xīn qū jiàn shè xiàn dài huà chéng shì 丨 xióng ān xīn qū xīn . . .

Promote the construction of Xiong'an New Area into a modern city with high standards and high quality丨Xiong'an New Area New...

百度新闻Feb 2026

回应法国疑 欧委会称受邀参加“和平委员会”会议是...

huí yīng fǎ guó zhì yí ōu wěi huì chèn shòu yāo cān jiā hé píng wěi yuán huì huì yì shì . . .

In response to French doubts, the European Commission said that the invitation to the meeting of the "Peace Commission" was...

Tatoeba

我奶奶患有骨疏松症。

Wǒ nǎinai huànyǒu gǔzhìshūsōngzhèng.

My grandmother suffers from osteoporosis.

Tatoeba

家具沉甸甸的。

Mùzhì jiājù chéndiàndiàn de.

Wooden furniture is heavy.

Tatoeba

众人皆知月球之本为芝士。

Zhòngrén jiē zhī yuèqiú zhī běnzhì wèi zhīshì.

Everybody knows the moon is made of cheese.

Tatoeba

这款木皮夹由一整块胡桃木制成。

Zhè kuǎn mùzhì píjiā yóu yī zhěng kuài hútáo mùzhì chéng.

This wood wallet is crafted from a single piece of walnut.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 质 (zhì) mean in Chinese?
质 (zhì) primarily means "character." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #404 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 质 and 计?
质 (zhì) and 计 (jì) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 贝 vs 讠 (same 十 component).
How many strokes does 质 have?
质 is written with 8 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 质?
The radical associated with 质 is 贝 (shell). This radical appears in many characters related to shell.
What are the components of 质?
质 is composed of: 厂 (structural), undefined (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸厂⿱十贝 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 质?
Common words with 质 include: 人质 (rén zhì, "hostage"); 物质 (wù zhì, "matter"); 质疑 (zhì yí, "to call into question"); 质量 (zhì liàng, "(physics) mass"); 本质 (běn zhì, "essence"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 质 (zhì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhì: 汁 (juice), 支 (to support), 知 (to know), 直 (Zhi (c. 2000 BC), fifth of the legendary Flame Emperors 炎帝 descended from Shennong 神農|神农 Farmer God), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 质 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 质 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.