拙 (zhuō): awkward, clumsy, dull

拙 (zhuō) is a Chinese character meaning “awkward.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 出 (phonetic). It ranks #2571 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 拙 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 扌 hand8 strokesFrequency #2571扌 semantic出 phonetic

Definitions

  1. awkward
  2. clumsy
  3. dull

Etymology & Origin

拙

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌出 (layout: left-right)

Components:扌semantic出phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
笨拙bèn zhuōclumsy
拙劣zhuō lièclumsy
弄巧成拙nòng qiǎo chéng zhuōto overreach oneself
拙作zhuō zuòmy unworthy manuscript (humble expr.)
拙笨zhuō bènclumsy
拙于言词zhuō yú yán cíto be unable to express oneself clearly (idiom)
巧诈不如拙诚qiǎo zhà bù rú zhuō chéngthe unvarnished truth is better than a cunning ruse (idiom)
弄巧反拙nòng qiǎo fǎn zhuōsee 弄巧成拙[nong4 qiao3 cheng2 zhuo1]
心拙口笨xīn zhuō kǒu bèndull-witted and tongue-tied
拙政园zhuō zhèng yuánHumble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou, Jiangsu
将勤补拙jiāng qín bǔ zhuō(idiom) to compensate for lack of ability with hard work
拙见zhuō jiànmy unworthy opinion (humble expr.)
老拙lǎo zhuōold fart (usually in self-reference)
拙直zhuō zhísimple and frank
心拙口夯xīn zhuō kǒu bènvariant of 心拙口笨[xin1 zhuo1 kou3 ben4]
31
Total compounds
45
As first character
35
As last character
19
As middle character

拙 appears in 31 compound words: 45 as the first character, 35 as the last, and 19 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 拙 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

笨bèn
0.7877,452 co-occurrences
劣liè
0.6132,634 co-occurrences
弄nòng
0.502996 co-occurrences
巧qiǎo
0.4901,284 co-occurrences
愚yú
0.435258 co-occurrences
稚zhì
0.399180 co-occurrences
涩sè
0.37730 co-occurrences
园yuán
0.364624 co-occurrences
朴pǔ
0.356210 co-occurrences
蠢chǔn
0.35542 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

笨口拙舌bènkǒuzhuōshéHSK 7+

awkward in speech; inarticulate

phrase
笨嘴拙舌bènzuǐzhuōshéHSK 7+

synonym of 笨口拙舌 (bènkǒuzhuōshé, “awkward in speech; inarticulate”)

phrase
将勤补拙jiāngqínbǔzhuōHSK 7+

to make up for one's lack of natural talent with hard work

phrase
弄巧成拙nòngqiǎochéngzhuōHSK 7+

to bungle an ingenious scheme

phrase
弄巧反拙nòng qiǎo fǎn zhuōHSK 7+

see 弄巧成拙[nong4 qiao3 cheng2 zhuo1]

phrase
心拙口笨xīn zhuō kǒu bènHSK 7+

dull-witted and tongue-tied

phrase
心拙口夯xīn zhuō kǒu bènHSK 7+

variant of 心拙口笨[xin1 zhuo1 kou3 ben4]

phrase
笨嘴拙腮bèn zuǐ zhuō sāiHSK 7+

see 笨嘴拙舌[ben4 zui3 zhuo1 she2]

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

妈妈拙着孩子的手，慢慢地过马路。

mā mā zhuō zhe hái zǐ de shǒu , màn màn dì guò mǎ lù .

Mom held her child's hand and slowly crossed the street.

Character Family

扌 Radical Family — Characters sharing the hand radical

挨āi按àn扒bā拔bá把bǎ摆bǎi扳bān搬bān扮bàn拌bàn

Related Characters

手shǒu打dǎ找zhǎo拿ná才cái护hù报bào拉lā挺tǐng换huàn

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhuō

捉zhuō桌zhuō灼zhuó卓zhuó浊zhuó酌zhuó琢zhuó

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 拙 (zhuō) mean in Chinese?
拙 (zhuō) primarily means "awkward." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2571 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 拙 and 础?
拙 (zhuō) and 础 (chǔ) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 石 (same 出 component).
How many strokes does 拙 have?
拙 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 拙?
The radical associated with 拙 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 拙?
拙 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 出 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌出 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 拙?
Common words with 拙 include: 笨拙 (bèn zhuō, "clumsy"); 拙劣 (zhuō liè, "clumsy"); 弄巧成拙 (nòng qiǎo chéng zhuō, "to overreach oneself"); 拙作 (zhuō zuò, "my unworthy manuscript (humble expr.)"); 拙笨 (zhuō bèn, "clumsy"). There are over 31 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 拙 (zhuō)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhuō: 捉 (to clutch), 桌 (table, desk), 灼 (to burn), 卓 (outstanding), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 拙 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 拙 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.