丈 meaning and stroke order
Gentleman, man, husband; unit of length equal to 3.3 meters
How to write 丈, stroke by stroke
3 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
- 2
- 3
Meaning of 丈
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- measure of length, ten Chinese feet (3.3 m)
- to measure
- husband
- polite appellation for an older male
How 丈 is built
Components of the character.
Radical: 一 (one), shared by 34 characters on this site.
How to remember 丈
Picture a hand 又 (yòu) laying a measuring stick 一 across the ground. The hand measures length, and a grown man was thought of as about one 丈 (zhàng) tall, which links to its meaning of man or husband.
Today 丈 is most common in 丈夫 (zhàngfu), the everyday word for husband, and in family terms for older men. It also survives as a traditional unit of length, about 3.3 meters. Example: 她丈夫是医生。(Tā zhàngfu shì yīshēng.) Her husband is a doctor.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 丈 with 大 (dà) or 文 (wén), but 丈 has a slanted stroke cutting through the hand shape, unlike either of them. Also note that in 丈夫 the second syllable is usually neutral tone (zhàngfu), while in 大丈夫 people often say dàzhàngfū with a full first tone on 夫.
Common words with 丈
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
丈 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Characters that contain 丈
Learning 丈 makes these easier to recognize and write.
Questions about 丈
How many strokes are in 丈?
丈 is written with 3 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 丈 mean?
丈 (zhàng) means gentleman, man, husband; unit of length equal to 3.3 meters. A common word with it is 丈夫 (zhàngfu), meaning "husband".
How do you pronounce 丈?
丈 is pronounced zhàng, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 丈?
The radical of 丈 is 一, which carries the idea of "one". Dictionaries list 丈 under this radical.
Is 丈 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 丈 is part of the HSK 4 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard, and you are expected to write it by hand from HSK 3.
What does 丈 mean in family words like 岳丈 or 姑丈?
In these words 丈 is a polite term for an older man or a man who married into the family. 岳丈 (yuèzhàng) is a wife's father, and 姑丈 (gūzhàng) is the husband of a father's sister.
Why does 方丈 mean the head monk of a temple?
方丈 (fāngzhang) first meant a room ten feet square, the small living space of a temple abbot. Over time the word came to mean the abbot himself.