烛 meaning and stroke order
Candle, taper; to illuminate, to shine
How to write 烛, stroke by stroke
10 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 烛
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- candle
- (literary) to illuminate
How 烛 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Fire.
火 gives the meaning and 虫 hints at the sound.
Radical: 火 (fire), shared by 128 characters on this site.
How to remember 烛
烛 is pictophonetic: 火 (fire) on the left gives the meaning, and 虫 on the right was chosen as the sound element. Picture a little bug drawn to a flame, and you have a candle.
In modern Chinese, 烛 almost always appears inside words like 蜡烛 (làzhú, candle) and 烛光 (zhúguāng, candlelight) rather than on its own. The verb sense "to illuminate" is literary and shows up mainly in set phrases and classical texts. Example: 停电了，我们点了一支蜡烛。(Tíngdiàn le, wǒmen diǎn le yī zhī làzhú.) The power went out, so we lit a candle.
Common mistake: Learners often read 烛 as chóng because of the 虫 component, but the character is pronounced zhú with a second tone. Also do not confuse it with 浊 (zhuó, muddy), which has the water radical 氵 instead of fire.
Common words with 烛
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
烛 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 烛
How many strokes are in 烛?
烛 is written with 10 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 烛 mean?
烛 (zhú) means candle, taper; to illuminate, to shine. A common word with it is 蜡烛 (làzhú), meaning "candle".
How do you pronounce 烛?
烛 is pronounced zhú, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 烛?
The radical of 烛 is 火, which carries the idea of "fire". Dictionaries list 烛 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 烛?
The traditional form of 烛 is 燭. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 烛 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 烛 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 烛 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
What measure word do you use for candles in Chinese?
The usual measure word is 支 (zhī), as in 一支蜡烛 (yī zhī làzhú, one candle). You will also hear 根 (gēn), which is used for long thin objects.
What does 洞若观火 or 洞烛 mean, and is 烛 used in idioms?
Yes. A common literary phrase is 洞烛其奸 (dòng zhú qí jiān), meaning to see clearly through someone's tricks, where 烛 means to illuminate. Another is 风烛残年 (fēng zhú cán nián), describing old age, like a candle flickering in the wind.