(zhuó): to cut (gems), used in 琢磨

(zhuó) is a Chinese character meaning “to cut (gems).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2703 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, jade. Its radical form (jade) appears in many related characters such as (wán, to play), (xiàn, to appear), (bān, team).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to cut (gems)
  2. used in 琢磨

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticjade

Decomposition: ⿰王豖 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
verbzhuó móto carve and polish (jade)
verbdiāo zhuóto sculpt
phrasejīng diāo xì zhuósee 精雕細刻|精雕细刻
phraseqiē cuō zhuó mólit. cutting and polishing (idiom)
4
Total compounds
25
As first character
50
As last character
25
As middle character

appears in 4 compound words: 25 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 25 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.

0.6431,414 co-occurrences
diāo
0.603908 co-occurrences
cuō
0.50266 co-occurrences
0.456516 co-occurrences
jīng
0.399358 co-occurrences
0.389144 co-occurrences
0.376128 co-occurrences
yáng
0.372122 co-occurrences
mào
0.37078 co-occurrences
téng
0.360142 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

jīngdiāoxìzhuóHSK 7+

to exquisitely craft; to meticulously refine

phrase

Showing 1 of 2 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le zhuó zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "琢" in the dictionary.

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

在江苏常州,一个年轻的团队正磨着把激光武器改成家用灭蚊神器,这个听上去挺有意思。

zài jiāng sū cháng zhōu , yī gè nián qīng de tuán duì zhèng zhuó mó zhe bǎ jī guāng wǔ qì gǎi chéng jiā yòng miè wén shén qì , zhè gè tīng shàng qù tǐng yǒu yì sī .

In Changzhou, Jiangsu, a young team is working on turning a laser weapon into a household mosquito-killing device—which sounds pretty interesting.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

唐八弧双鹊衔绶铜镜,镜背以半球钮为中心,左右对称雕双鹊口衔绶带翩飞。

táng bā hú shuāng 鹊 xián 绶 tóng jìng , jìng bèi yǐ bàn qiú niǔ wéi zhōng xīn , zuǒ yòu duì chèn diāo zhuó shuāng 鹊 kǒu xián 绶 dài 翩 fēi .

A Tang Dynasty "Eight Arcs" bronze mirror featuring two magpies carrying a sash; the reverse side is centered around a hemispherical knob and is symmetrically carved on both sides with two magpies in flight, each holding a sash in its beak.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

在拍摄期间,他每天都认真磨角色的每个动作,甚至连说话时的停顿和喘息都反复练习。

zài pāi shè qī jiān , tā měi tiān dōu rèn zhēn zhuó mó jiǎo sè de měi gè dòng zuò , shèn zhì lián shuō huà shí de tíng dùn hé chuǎn xī dōu fǎn fù liàn xí .

During filming, he carefully studied every movement of his character every day, even rehearsing the pauses and breaths in his speech over and over again.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

打磨这样一部精雕细的剧目靠的是坚守现实主义创作道路。

dǎ mó zhè yàng yī bù jīng diāo xì zhuó de jù mù kào de shì jiān shǒu xiàn shí zhǔ yì chuàng zuò dào lù .

The refinement of such a meticulously crafted production relies on adhering to the path of realism in creative work.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

经专家考证,其由新疆和田玉整料制而成。

jīng zhuān jiā kǎo zhèng , qí yóu xīn jiāng hé tián yù zhěng liào zhuó zhì ér chéng .

According to expert analysis, it was carved from a single piece of Hotan jade from Xinjiang.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 王 (jade) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhuó

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 琢 (zhuó) mean in Chinese?
琢 (zhuó) primarily means "to cut (gems)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2703 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 琢 have?
琢 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 琢?
The radical associated with 琢 is 王 (jade). This radical appears in many characters related to jade.
What are the components of 琢?
琢 is composed of: 王 (semantic), 豖 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰王豖 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 琢?
Common words with 琢 include: 琢磨 (zhuó mó, "to carve and polish (jade)"); 雕琢 (diāo zhuó, "to sculpt"); 精雕细琢 (jīng diāo xì zhuó, "see 精雕細刻|精雕细刻"); 切磋琢磨 (qiē cuō zhuó mó, "lit. cutting and polishing (idiom)"). There are over 4 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 琢 (zhuó)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhuó: 桌 (table, desk), 捉 (to clutch), 卓 (outstanding), 拙 (awkward), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 琢 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 琢 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 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.