Meaning
letter; symbol; character; word
Chinese: 文字、汉字或字词。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “zi” becomes a different word in each tone. 字 is the 4th tone. Tap any tone to hear a native voice and see its pitch shape.
Stroke Order
Tap Animate to watch the strokes in order, or Practice to trace it yourself.
Common Words
- 名字míng ziname (of a person or thing)
- 汉字hàn zìChinese character(s)
- 数字shù zìnumeral; digit; number; figure
- 字典zì diǎnChinese character dictionary; (coll.) dictionary
- 文字wén zìcharacter; script; writing; written language
Example Sentence
这个汉字一共有八画。Zhè ge hàn zì yí gòng yǒu bā huà.This Chinese character has eight strokes in total.
这个Zhè ge(pronoun) this汉字hàn zìChinese character(s)一共yí gòngin total有yǒuto have八bāeight画huàto draw。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
A child (子) under a roof (宀): originally ‘to give birth / raise’. Because compound characters ‘breed’ from simpler ones, it came to mean ‘written character / word’.
A way to remember it
A child under a roof — characters multiplying like a family.
Easy to confuse with
- 子‘Child’: 字 is just 子 with a roof added on top.