桩 (zhuāng): stump, stake, pile, classifier for events, cases, transactions, affairs etc

桩 (zhuāng) is a Chinese character meaning “stump.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 木 (semantic) and 庄 (phonetic). It ranks #2406 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 桩 wood. Its radical form 木 (tree) appears in many related characters such as 本 (běn, (bound form) root), 机 (jī, machine, opportunity), 条 (tiáo, strip).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. stump
  2. stake
  3. pile
  4. classifier for events, cases, transactions, affairs etc

Etymology & Origin

桩

pictophoneticwood

Decomposition: ⿰木庄 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
木桩nounmù zhuāngwooden pile
树桩nounshù zhuāngtree stump
打桩机noundǎ zhuāng jīpile driver (machinery)
打桩verbdǎ zhuāngto drive piles into
小事一桩xiǎo shì yī zhuāngtrivial matter
充电桩chōng diàn zhuāngelectric vehicle charging point
宁拆十座庙,不毁一桩婚nìng chāi shí zuò miào , bù huǐ yī zhuāng hūnrather destroy ten temples than a single marriage (idiom)
桩桩件件zhuāng zhuāng jiàn jiàneach and every one
件件桩桩jiàn jiàn zhuāng zhuāngsee 樁樁件件|桩桩件件
路桩lù zhuāngbollard
界桩nounjiè zhuāngboundary marker
基桩jī zhuāngfoundation piles
桩构栈道zhuāng gòu zhàn dàopile trestle
标桩biāo zhuāng(marking) stake
桩脚nounzhuāng jiǎopier foundation (architecture)
19
Total compounds
16
As first character
68
As last character
16
As middle character

桩 appears in 19 compound words: 16 as the first character, 68 as the last, and 16 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 桩 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

拴shuān
0.54952 co-occurrences
钻zuān
0.517178 co-occurrences
灌guàn
0.429130 co-occurrences
充chōng
0.428269 co-occurrences
浇jiāo
0.42524 co-occurrences
姻yīn
0.421134 co-occurrences
树shù
0.418198 co-occurrences
木mù
0.417590 co-occurrences
孔kǒng
0.417232 co-occurrences
础chǔ
0.411156 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

秋风起,桩叶变黄,铺满了林间小路。

qiū fēng qǐ , zhuāng xié biàn huáng , pù mǎn le lín jiān xiǎo lù .

Autumn winds rise, Leaves turn yellow, Carpeted along the forest path.

工商時報Mar 2026

固桩 苹果库克、COO再访中

gù zhuāng píng guǒ kù kè , C O O zài fǎng zhōng

Solidifying the Foundation: Apple CEO Tim Cook and COO Return to China

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Mar 2026

全球大型打桩船“铁建大桥桩1”轮从江苏拖带出江试航

quán qiú dà xíng dǎ zhuāng chuán tiě jiàn dà qiáo zhuāng 1 lún cóng jiāng sū tuō dài chū jiāng shì háng

The "CRCC Bridge Pile 1," a large-scale global pile-driving vessel, was towed out of the Yangtze River from Jiangsu for sea trials

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

军售风向变 立院军购案急急为哪桩?

jūn shòu fēng xiàng biàn lì yuàn jūn gòu àn jí jí wéi nǎ zhuāng ?

The direction of arms sales has changed, and the Legislative Yuan is in a hurry.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

民调前夕 江启臣固桩本命区 杨琼璎端政绩

mín diào qián xī jiāng qǐ chén gù zhuāng běn mìng qū yáng 琼 璎 duān zhèng jì

On the eve of the polls, Jiang Qichen solidified the pile of the natal district Yang Qiongying's political achievements

NewtalkFeb 2026

合欢山违规乱象再添一桩!民众大玩飞行伞 太管处:开罚3千

gě huān shān wéi guī luàn xiàng zài tiān yī zhuāng ! mín zhòng dà wán fēi háng sǎn tài guǎn chǔ : kāi fá 3 qiān

Hehuan Mountain violations and chaos add another one! The people played with parachutes and the Taiguan Office: 3,000 fines

Tatoeba

私家侦探们受雇调查这桩奇怪的案件。

Sījiā zhēntànmen shòugù diàochá zhè zhuāng qíguài de ànjiàn.

Private detectives were hired to look into the strange case.

Tatoeba

毫无疑问,我们正在调查一桩命案。

Háowúyíwèn, wǒmen zhèngzài diàochá yī zhuāng mìng'àn.

Make no mistake, we're looking at a homicide case.

Tatoeba

汤姆出了桩事故。

Tāngmǔ chū le zhuāng shìgù.

Tom had a bad accident.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 木 (wood) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhuāng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 桩 (zhuāng) mean in Chinese?
桩 (zhuāng) primarily means "stump." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2406 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 桩 and 脏?
桩 (zhuāng) and 脏 (zāng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 木 vs 月 (same 庄 component).
How many strokes does 桩 have?
桩 is written with 10 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 桩?
The radical associated with 桩 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 桩?
桩 is composed of: 木 (semantic), 庄 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰木庄 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 桩?
Common words with 桩 include: 木桩 (mù zhuāng, "wooden pile"); 树桩 (shù zhuāng, "tree stump"); 打桩机 (dǎ zhuāng jī, "pile driver (machinery)"); 打桩 (dǎ zhuāng, "to drive piles into"); 小事一桩 (xiǎo shì yī zhuāng, "trivial matter"). There are over 19 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 桩 (zhuāng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhuāng: 装 (dress, install), 状 ((bound form) form), 庄 (village, manor), 撞 (to knock against), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 桩 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 桩 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 桩 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.