杖 meaning and stroke order
Cane, walking stick
How to write 杖, stroke by stroke
7 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 杖
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- a staff
- a rod
- cane
- walking stick
- to flog with a stick (old)
How 杖 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Wood.
木 gives the meaning and 丈 hints at the sound.
Radical: 木 (tree), shared by 388 characters on this site.
How to remember 杖
杖 combines 木 (wood) with 丈 (zhàng), which gives the sound. Picture a long piece of wood that an old man leans on: a wooden staff.
杖 rarely stands alone in modern Chinese and usually appears in compounds like 拐杖 (guǎizhàng, crutch or walking stick), 手杖 (shǒuzhàng, cane) and 魔杖 (mózhàng, magic wand). Example: 爷爷走路要用拐杖。(Yéye zǒulù yào yòng guǎizhàng.) Grandpa needs a cane to walk.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 杖 with 仗 (zhàng, battle; to rely on), which has the same sound and the same 丈 part but uses the person radical 亻. If it is a stick made of wood, use 木.
Common words with 杖
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
杖 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 杖
How many strokes are in 杖?
杖 is written with 7 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 杖 mean?
杖 (zhàng) means cane, walking stick. A common word with it is 拐杖 (guǎizhàng), meaning "crutches; crutch".
How do you pronounce 杖?
杖 is pronounced zhàng, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 杖?
The radical of 杖 is 木, which carries the idea of "tree". Dictionaries list 杖 under this radical.
Is 杖 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 杖 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 拐杖 and 手杖?
手杖 (shǒuzhàng) is a walking cane held in the hand. 拐杖 (guǎizhàng) can mean a cane too, but it also covers crutches used after an injury, and it is the more common everyday word.
Why does 杖 also mean to flog?
In old China, beating someone with a stick was a formal punishment, so 杖 could be used as a verb meaning to flog with a rod. You will see this sense in historical texts and dramas, not in modern speech.