卒 (zú): soldier, servant, to finish

卒 (zú) is a Chinese character meaning “soldier.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亠 (structural), 从 (structural) and 十 (structural). It ranks #2475 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, 卒 a soldier in armor. Its radical form 十 (ten) appears in many related characters such as 十 (shí, ten), 午 (wǔ, 7th earthly branch: 11 a.m.-1 p.m., noon, 5th solar month (6th June-6th July), year of the Horse), 半 (bàn, half).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. soldier
  2. servant
  3. to finish

Etymology & Origin

卒

pictographicA soldier in armor

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

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
无名小卒nounwú míng xiǎo zúinsignificant soldier (idiom)
狱卒nounyù zújailer (old)
小卒nounxiǎo zúfoot soldier
身先士卒phraseshēn xiān shì zúto fight at the head of one's troops
走卒nounzǒu zúpawn (i.e. foot soldier)
马前卒nounmǎ qián zúlackey
士卒nounshì zúsoldier
兵卒nounbīng zúsoldiers
生卒年月shēng zú nián yuèdates of birth and death (of historical figure)
为德不卒wéi dé bù zúto start on virtue but give up (idiom)
生卒年nounshēng zú niándates of birth and death (of historical figure)
脑卒中nounnǎo cù zhòngstroke
卒中nouncù zhòngstroke
贩夫走卒phrasefàn fū zǒu zúlit. peddlers and carriers
更卒gēng zúsoldier (serving alternate watch)
23
Total compounds
13
As first character
74
As last character
13
As middle character

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

赠zèng
0.4661,418 co-occurrences
详xiáng
0.428998 co-occurrences
疾jí
0.4231,620 co-occurrences
十shí
0.39610,442 co-occurrences
官guān
0.3915,716 co-occurrences
病bìng
0.3903,342 co-occurrences
享xiǎng
0.3891,358 co-occurrences
早zǎo
0.3883,410 co-occurrences
七qī
0.3823,672 co-occurrences
祀sì
0.377648 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

贩夫走卒fànfūzǒuzúHSK 7+

population with low social status

phrase
身先士卒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
为德不卒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
无名小卒wúmíng xiǎozúHSK 7+

nobody; unremarkable individual

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了卒字的详细解释。

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,一位名叫洪奕的戍卒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,坠江而卒”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

“小卒过河”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 “郁卒的平面” 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《乌卒卒》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

他不过是个无名小卒而已。

Tā bùguò shì ge wúmíngxiǎozú éryǐ.

He is just a Mr Nobody.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zú

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 卒 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.