组 (zǔ): group, to organize

组 (zǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “group, to organize.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 纟 (semantic) and 且 (phonetic). It ranks #358 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 组 thread. Its radical form 纟 (silk) appears in many related characters such as 系 (xì, to connect), 累 (lèi, tired), 绍 (shào, to continue).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. group, to organize

Etymology & Origin

组

pictophoneticthread

Decomposition: ⿰纟且 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 组

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
组织verb/nounzǔ zhīto organize5
小组nounxiǎo zǔgroup4
组合verb/nounzǔ héto assemble5
组成verbzǔ chéngto form5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
剧组nounjù zǔcast and crew
重组verbchóng zǔto reorganize
组建verbzǔ jiànto organize
组装verbzǔ zhuāngto assemble
组长nounzǔ zhǎnggroup leader
机组nounjī zǔflight crew (on a plane)
分组verbfēn zǔto divide into groups
组队verbzǔ duìto team up (with)
组织者nounzǔ zhī zhěorganizer
软组织nounruǎn zǔ zhīsoft tissue
组件nounzǔ jiànmodule
工作组noungōng zuò zǔwork team
专案组nounzhuān àn zǔspecial investigation team (legal or judicial)
组成部分zǔ chéng bù fènpart
基因组nounjī yīn zǔgenome
100
Total compounds
32
As first character
38
As last character
30
As middle character

组 appears in 100 compound words: 32 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 30 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 组 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

织zhī
0.789252,330 co-occurrences
究jiū
0.693228,908 co-occurrences
研yán
0.683230,336 co-occurrences
妙miào
0.629114 co-occurrences
小xiǎo
0.605289,848 co-occurrences
巧qiǎo
0.547116 co-occurrences
党dǎng
0.51247,118 co-occurrences
由yóu
0.497151 co-occurrences
笔bǐ
0.460116 co-occurrences
成chéng
0.441183,291 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (10)

固定词组gù dìng cí zǔHSK 5+

set phrase

phrase
基地组织Jīdì ZǔzhīHSK 5+

al-Qaeda

结缔组织jiédì zǔzhīHSK 7+

connective tissue

noun
经合组织Jīnghé ZǔzhīHSK 5+

short for 經濟合作與發展組織/经济合作与发展组织 (Jīngjì Hézuò Yǔ Fāzhǎn Zǔzhī, “OECD”)

抗组织胺kàngzǔzhī'àn

(pharmacology) antihistamine

noun
上合组织Shàng Hé ZǔzhīHSK 5+

short for 上海合作組織/上海合作组织 (Shànghǎi Hézuò Zǔzhī, “Shanghai Cooperation Organisation; SCO”)

世贸组织shìmào zǔzhīHSK 6+

World Trade Organization (WTO)

世卫组织Shìwèi ZǔzhīHSK 5+

short for 世界衛生組織/世界卫生组织 (Shìjiè Wèishēng Zǔzhī)

专案小组zhuān àn xiǎo zǔHSK 4+

task force

phrase
组织培养zǔ zhī péi yǎngHSK 5+

tissue culture, esp. plant tissue culture

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个小组有五个人,负责产品的市场推广。

Zhè gè xiǎozǔ yǒu wǔ gè rén, fùzé chǎnpǐn de shìchǎng tuīguǎng.

This group has five people responsible for product marketing.

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

组图:太阳风暴来袭时 出现令人惊叹的极光

zǔ tú : tài yáng fēng bào lái xí shí chū xiàn lìng rén jīng tàn de jí guāng

Picture: Stunning aurora appears when a solar storm hits

Irna ChineseFeb 2026

内塔尼亚胡宣布组建针对穆斯林的新联盟

nèi tǎ ní yà hú xuān bù zǔ jiàn zhēn duì mù sī lín de xīn lián méng

Netanyahu announced the formation of a new coalition against Muslims

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

考文垂:期待“为奥运喝彩”项目组持续发挥文化桥梁作用

kǎo wén chuí : qī dài wéi ào yùn hē cǎi xiàng mù zǔ chí xù fā huī wén huà qiáo liáng zuò yòng

Coventry: We look forward to the "Cheers for the Olympics" project team continuing to play a cultural bridge

百度新闻Feb 2026

俄外长:俄美已商定建立双边经济工作组

é wài cháng é měi yǐ shāng dìng jiàn lì shuāng biān jīng jǐ gōng zuò zǔ

Russian Foreign Minister: Russia and the US have agreed to set up a bilateral economic working group

百度新闻Feb 2026

洛杉矶奥组委主席涉爱泼斯坦案,市长呼吁其辞职

洛 杉 矶 ào zǔ wěi zhǔ xí shè ài pō sī tǎn àn , shì cháng hū xū qí cí zhí

Mayor calls for resignation of L.A. Olympic chairman in Epstein case.

Tatoeba

谁组织了这次会议?

Shéi zǔzhī le zhè cì huìyì?

Who organized that meeting?

Tatoeba

谁组织的这场活动?

Shéi zǔzhī de zhè chǎng huódòng?

Who organized this event?

Tatoeba

为了参加划船比赛,一支新的队伍组成了。

Wèile cānjiā huáchuán bǐsài, yī zhī xīn de duìwǔ zǔchéng le.

A new team was formed in order to take part in the boat race.

Tatoeba

人是由灵魂和肉身组成的。

Rén shì yóu línghún hé ròushēn zǔchéng de.

Man consists of soul and body.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 纟 (thread) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced zǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 组 (zǔ) mean in Chinese?
组 (zǔ) primarily means "group, to organize." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #358 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 组 and 助?
组 (zǔ) and 助 (zhù) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 纟 vs 力 (same 且 component).
How many strokes does 组 have?
组 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 组?
The radical associated with 组 is 纟 (silk). This radical appears in many characters related to silk.
What are the components of 组?
组 is composed of: 纟 (semantic), 且 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰纟且 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 组?
Common words with 组 include: 组织 (zǔ zhī, "to organize"); 小组 (xiǎo zǔ, "group"); 组合 (zǔ hé, "to assemble"); 组成 (zǔ chéng, "to form"); 剧组 (jù zǔ, "cast and crew"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 组 (zǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zǔ: 阻 (to hinder), 祖 (ancestor), 足 (foot), 族 (race), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 组 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 组 and the traditional form is 組.

Practice writing 组 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.