(): soldier, servant, to finish

() is a Chinese character meaning “soldier.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural), (structural) and (structural). It ranks #2475 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, a soldier in armor. Its radical form (ten) appears in many related characters such as (shí, ten), (, 7th earthly branch: 11 a.m.-1 p.m., noon, 5th solar month (6th June-6th July), year of the Horse), (bàn, half).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. soldier
  2. servant
  3. to finish

Etymology & Origin

pictographicA soldier in armor

Decomposition: ⿱亠⿱从十 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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
nounwú míng xiǎo zúinsignificant soldier (idiom)
nounyù zújailer (old)
nounxiǎo zúfoot soldier
phraseshēn xiān shì zúto fight at the head of one's troops
nounzǒu zúpawn (i.e. foot soldier)
nounmǎ qián zúlackey
nounshì zúsoldier
nounbīng zúsoldiers
shēng zú nián yuèdates of birth and death (of historical figure)
wéi dé bù zúto start on virtue but give up (idiom)
nounshēng zú niándates of birth and death (of historical figure)
nounnǎo cù zhòngstroke
nouncù zhòngstroke
phrasefàn fū zǒu zúlit. peddlers and carriers
gēng zúsoldier (serving alternate watch)
23
Total compounds
13
As first character
74
As last character
13
As middle character

appears in 23 compound words: 13 as the first character, 74 as the last, and 13 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.

zèng
0.4661,418 co-occurrences
xiáng
0.428998 co-occurrences
0.4231,620 co-occurrences
shí
0.39610,442 co-occurrences
guān
0.3915,716 co-occurrences
bìng
0.3903,342 co-occurrences
xiǎng
0.3891,358 co-occurrences
zǎo
0.3883,410 co-occurrences
0.3823,672 co-occurrences
0.377648 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

fànfūzǒuzúHSK 7+

population with low social status

phrase
shēnxiānshìzúHSK 7+

to be situated in front of all soldiers and attack the enemy as the general; to take the lead as the leader

phrase
wéi dé bù zúHSK 7+

to start on virtue but give up (idiom); to fail to carry things through; lack of sticking power; short attention span

phrase
wúmíng xiǎozúHSK 7+

nobody; unremarkable individual

noun

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 zú zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

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

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

公元719年,一位名叫洪奕的戍离家赴西州已满两年,又接到调令,需限期奔赴北庭戍防。

gōng yuán 7 1 9 nián , yī wèi míng jiào hóng 奕 de 戍 zú lí jiā fù xī zhōu yǐ mǎn liǎng nián , yòu jiē dào diào lìng , xū xiàn qī bēn fù běi tíng 戍 fáng .

In the year 719 AD, a soldier named Hong Yi had been stationed in Xizhou for two full years when he received another transfer order requiring him to report for duty at Beiting within a specified time limit.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

扶风班氏未与丈夫合葬可能与其入道修行以及王昂最终“过硖江,坠江而”有关。

fú fēng bān shì wèi yǔ zhàng fū gě zàng kě néng yǔ qí rù dào xiū háng yǐ jí wáng áng zuì zhōng guò 硖 jiāng , zhuì jiāng ér zú yǒu guān .

The fact that Ban Shi of Fufeng was not buried alongside her husband may be related to her decision to become a Taoist nun and to Wang Ang’s eventual “crossing of the Xie River, where he fell into the river and died.”

中国新闻网·体育Jun 2026

“小过河”双人对弈、大师车轮战、人机擂台赛、文化集市等活动也轮番上演。

xiǎo zú guò hé shuāng rén duì yì , dà shī chē lún zhàn , rén jī 擂 tái sài , wén huà jí shì děng huó dòng yě lún fān shàng yǎn .

Activities such as “Pawn Crossing the River” two-player matches, master round-robin tournaments, human-vs.-computer challenges, and a cultural fair were held one after another.

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

威尼斯双年展台湾馆 “郁的平面” 李亦凡解读手机世代的扁平与焦虑

wēi ní sī shuāng nián zhǎn tái wān guǎn yù zú de píng miàn lǐ yì fán jiě dòu shǒu jī shì dài de piān píng yǔ jiāo lǜ

Venice Biennale Taiwan Pavilion: “Flat and Frustrated” – Li Yifan Interprets the Flatness and Anxiety of the Smartphone Generation

Hk01.comFeb 2026

陈松伶开骚唱经典《乌》曝光55岁真实状态 造型一细节遭吐槽

chén sōng 伶 kāi sāo chàng jīng diǎn wū zú zú pù guāng 5 5 suì zhēn shí zhuàng tài zào xíng yī xì jié zāo tǔ cáo

Chen Songling sang the classic "Wu Zhu Zhu" to expose the true state of the 55-year-old and the details of the shape were complained about

Tatoeba

他不过是个无名小而已。

Tā bùguò shì ge wúmíngxiǎozú éryǐ.

He is just a Mr Nobody.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 卒 (zú) mean in Chinese?
卒 (zú) primarily means "soldier." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2475 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 卒 have?
卒 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 卒?
The radical associated with 卒 is 十 (ten). This radical appears in many characters related to ten.
What are the components of 卒?
卒 is composed of: 亠 (structural), 从 (structural), 十 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱亠⿱从十 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 卒?
Common words with 卒 include: 无名小卒 (wú míng xiǎo zú, "insignificant soldier (idiom)"); 狱卒 (yù zú, "jailer (old)"); 小卒 (xiǎo zú, "foot soldier"); 身先士卒 (shēn xiān shì zú, "to fight at the head of one's troops"); 走卒 (zǒu zú, "pawn (i.e. foot soldier)"). There are over 23 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 卒 (zú)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zú: 组 (group, to organize), 足 (foot), 族 (race), 阻 (to hinder), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 卒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 卒 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.