字 (zì): letter, symbol, character
字 (zì) is a Chinese character meaning “letter.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 宀 (structural) and 子 (structural). It ranks #393 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 字 a child 子 in a house 宀; 子 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 子 (child) appears in many related characters such as 子 (zǐ, son), 学 (xué, to learn), 孩 (hái, (bound form) child).
Definitions
- letter
- symbol
- character
Etymology & Origin
ideographicA child 子 in a house 宀; 子 also provides the pronunciation
Decomposition: ⿱宀子 (layout: top-bottom)
Stroke Order
Practice writing 字 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
HSK Vocabulary with 字
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | HSK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 名字noun | míng zi | name (of a person or thing) | 1 |
| 数字 | shù zì | numeral | 4 |
| 字母noun | zì mǔ | letter (of the alphabet) | 5 |
| 签字verb/noun | qiān zì | to sign (one's name) | 5 |
| 文字noun | wén zì | character | 4 |
| 字典noun | zì diǎn | Chinese character dictionary (containing entries for single characters, contrasted with a 詞典|词典[ci2 dian3], which has... | 3 |
| 十字路口 | shí zì lù kǒu | crossroads | 4 |
| 字幕noun | zì mù | subtitles | 6 |
| 数字化verb | shù zì huà | to digitize | 6 |
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 字条 | zì tiáo | brief note |
| 十字 | shí zì | cross road |
| 写字 | xiě zì | to write (by hand) |
| 字眼 | zì yǎn | wording |
| 字面 | zì miàn | literal |
| 识字 | shí zì | to learn to read |
| 打字 | dǎ zì | to type (using a keyboard, typewriter or phone etc) |
| 字谜 | zì mí | letter puzzle |
| 字体 | zì tǐ | calligraphic style |
| 字迹 | zì jì | handwriting |
| 赤字 | chì zì | (financial) deficit |
| 认字 | rèn zì | to learn to read |
| 字样 | zì yàng | model or template character |
| 字形 | zì xíng | form of a Chinese character |
| 字符 | zì fú | character (computing) |
字 appears in 100 compound words: 40 as the first character, 58 as the last, and 2 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 字 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (22)
eight characters that indicate the year, month, date and double-hour of one's birth, used in fortune-telling
to forget how to write Chinese characters; to suffer from character amnesia
Showing 12 of 22 idioms containing 字.
Example Sentences
他的书法很好，每个字都写得非常漂亮。
Tā de shūfǎ hěn hǎo, měi gè zì dōu xiě de fēicháng piàoliang.
His calligraphy is very good; every character is written very beautifully.
超商换冰拿铁“店员跳针狂问2字”真相曝
chāo shāng huàn bīng ná tiě diàn yuán tiào zhēn kuáng wèn 2 zì zhēn xiāng pù
The truth of the supermarket changing ice latte "the clerk jumped the needle and asked 2 words" was exposed
字节跳动Seedance 2.0爆红 美影...
zì jié tiào dòng S e e d a n c e 2 . 0 bào hóng měi yǐng . . .
ByteDance Seedance 2.0 became popular...
杭州一步行街被指写错北宋诗人名字,“晁冲之”写成“..
háng zhōu yī bù háng jiē bèi zhǐ xiě cuò běi sòng shī rén míng zì , 晁 chōng zhī xiě chéng . .
A pedestrian street in Hangzhou was accused of writing the name of a Northern Song poet wrongly, "Chao Chongzhi" was written as "Chao Chongzhi", "Chao Chongzhi" was written as "Chao Chongzhi", "Chao Chongzhi" was written as "Chao Chongzhi"...
抖音集团李亮:炒作“字节是恒科的最大空头”很荒唐也..
dǒu yīn jí tuán lǐ liàng chǎo zuò zì jié shì héng kē de zuì dà kōng tóu hěn huāng táng yě . .
Jitterbug Group's Li Liang: The speculation that "Byte is the biggest short of Henco" is absurd and...
万马奔腾启新程!这支复旦“马”字牌拜年天团来送福啦..
mò mǎ bēn téng qǐ xīn chéng ! zhè zhī fù dàn mǎ zì pái bài nián tiān tuán lái sòng fú lā . .
A thousand horses gallop to usher in a new journey! This Fudan "Horse" New Year Greeting Squad is here to bring blessings...
我能用一下你的字典吗？
Wǒ néng yòng yīxià nǐ de zìdiǎn ma?
Can I use your dictionary for a minute?
你把数字记熟了吗？
Nǐ bǎ shùzì jì shú le ma?
Have you learned the number by heart?
那个名字很普通吗？
Nàge míngzi hěn pǔtōng ma?
Is that a common name?
你会读这个汉字吗？
Nǐ huì dú zhège hànzì ma?
Can you read this kanji?
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 字 (zì) mean in Chinese?
How many strokes does 字 have?
What is the radical of 字?
What are the components of 字?
What are common words containing 字?
What characters sound the same as 字 (zì)?
Is 字 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 字 with real-time feedback
Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.