蛀 (zhù): termite

蛀 (zhù) is a Chinese character meaning “termite.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 虫 (semantic) and 主 (phonetic). It ranks #3111 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 蛀 insect. Its radical form 虫 (insect) appears in many related characters such as 虫 (chóng, insect), 蛇 (shé, snake), 蛋 (dàn, egg).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 虫 insect11 strokesFrequency #3111虫 semantic主 phonetic

Definitions

  1. termite

Etymology & Origin

蛀

pictophoneticinsect

Decomposition: ⿰虫主 (layout: left-right)

Components:虫semantic主phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
蛀虫zhù chónginsect that eats into wood, books, clothes etc
蛀牙zhù yátooth decay
虫蛀chóng zhùdamaged by moths or worms
蠹蛀dù zhùto be moth-eaten
蛀蚀zhù shíto corrupt
5
Total compounds
60
As first character
40
As last character
0
As middle character

蛀 appears in 5 compound words: 60 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 0 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 蛀 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

虫chóng
0.551552 co-occurrences
牙yá
0.5261,425 co-occurrences
蚀shí
0.44872 co-occurrences
蚁yǐ
0.43954 co-occurrences
霉méi
0.42030 co-occurrences
朽xiǔ
0.41636 co-occurrences
犀xī
0.39230 co-occurrences
腐fǔ
0.39178 co-occurrences
防fáng
0.390420 co-occurrences
咬yǎo
0.36830 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了解蛀字的来源，有助于理解中国文化。

le jiě zhù zì de lái yuán , yǒu zhù yú lǐ jiě zhōng guó wén huà .

Understanding the origin of the character "蛀" can help in understanding Chinese culture.

三立新聞網Feb 2026

牙痛要人命!蛀牙不补死亡风险增1.7倍

yá tòng yāo rén mìng ! zhù yá bù bǔ sǐ wáng fēng xiǎn zēng 1 . 7 bèi

Toothache can kill people! The risk of death without tooth decay increased by 1.7 times

TvbsFeb 2026

牙痛要注意!日本研究:长者“蛀牙不治疗”死亡风险增1.7倍

yá tòng yāo zhù yì ! rì běn yán jiū : cháng zhě zhù yá bù zhì liáo sǐ wáng fēng xiǎn zēng 1 . 7 bèi

Beware of toothache! Japanese study: The risk of death from "untreated tooth decay" increases by 1.7 times in the elderly

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蛇shé蛋dàn蜂fēng蚊wén虾xiā蜡là融róng虽suī虹hóng

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhù

注zhù驻zhù柱zhù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 蛀 (zhù) mean in Chinese?
蛀 (zhù) primarily means "termite." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3111 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 蛀 have?
蛀 is written with 11 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 蛀?
The radical associated with 蛀 is 虫 (insect). This radical appears in many characters related to insect.
What are the components of 蛀?
蛀 is composed of: 虫 (semantic), 主 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰虫主 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 蛀?
Common words with 蛀 include: 蛀虫 (zhù chóng, "insect that eats into wood, books, clothes etc"); 蛀牙 (zhù yá, "tooth decay"); 虫蛀 (chóng zhù, "damaged by moths or worms"); 蠹蛀 (dù zhù, "to be moth-eaten"); 蛀蚀 (zhù shí, "to corrupt"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 蛀 (zhù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhù: 注 ((bound form) to pour into), 驻 (station), 柱 (pillar, column). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 蛀 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 蛀 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 蛀 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.