(zòu): to hit, to beat (sb), (coll.) to smash (sth)

(zòu) is a Chinese character meaning “to hit.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2931 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

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

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to hit
  2. to beat (sb)
  3. (coll.) to smash (sth)

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌奏 (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
ái zòuto be beaten
zòu rénto hit sb
zòu sǐto beat to death
qiàn zòuto need a spanking
zòu biǎnto beat (sb) up
5
Total compounds
60
As first character
40
As last character
0
As middle character

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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

hěn
0.610546 co-occurrences
āi
0.575252 co-occurrences
quán
0.485492 co-occurrences
tòng
0.431282 co-occurrences
0.420120 co-occurrences
pàng
0.40560 co-occurrences
0.394732 co-occurrences
0.38554 co-occurrences
qiàn
0.37360 co-occurrences
0.36296 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了一个电话,约朋友晚上一起吃饭。

tā zòu le yī gě diàn huà , yāo péng yǒu wǎn shǎng yī qǐ chī fàn .

He made a phone call to arrange dinner with a friend that evening.

中時新聞網Mar 2026

知名电子厂男惊爆虐猫!隔袋狠、莲蓬头浇水灌顶 警方出手了

zhī míng diàn zǐ hǎn nán jīng bào nüè māo ! gé dài hěn zòu , lián péng tóu jiāo shuǐ guàn dǐng jǐng fāng chū shǒu le

Tatoeba

汤姆被一只灰熊了。

Tāngmǔ bèi yī zhī huīxióng zòu le.

Tom was attacked by a grizzly bear.

Tatoeba

这个受害者被了一顿然后被放任不管。

Zhège shòuhàizhě bèi zòu le yī dùnrán hòu bèi fàngrèn bù guǎn.

The victim had been beaten up and left for dead.

Tatoeba

汤姆把他得满地找牙。

Tāngmǔ bǎ tā zòu de mǎndìzhǎoyá.

Tom knocked him down.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zòu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 揍 (zòu) mean in Chinese?
揍 (zòu) primarily means "to hit." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2931 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 揍 and 凑?
揍 (zòu) and 凑 (còu) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 冫 (same 奏 component).
How many strokes does 揍 have?
揍 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 揍?
The radical associated with 揍 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 揍?
揍 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 奏 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌奏 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 揍?
Common words with 揍 include: 挨揍 (ái zòu, "to be beaten"); 揍人 (zòu rén, "to hit sb"); 揍死 (zòu sǐ, "to beat to death"); 欠揍 (qiàn zòu, "to need a spanking"); 揍扁 (zòu biǎn, "to beat (sb) up"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 揍 (zòu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zòu: 走 (to walk), 奏 (to play music). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 揍 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 揍 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.