Meaning of 家长
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- head of a household
- family head
- patriarch
- parent or guardian of a child
How to use 家长
In modern Chinese, 家长 is mostly used for parents in a school or child-related context, like parent meetings or messages from teachers. The older sense of family head or patriarch appears in formal or historical writing. Example: 明天学校要开家长会。(Míngtiān xuéxiào yào kāi jiāzhǎng huì.) The school is having a parent-teacher meeting tomorrow.
家 (jiā) means home or family, and 长 (zhǎng) means elder or head, as in a leader who has grown up. Put them together and you get the grown-up in charge of the home: a parent or guardian.
Common mistake: Learners often read 长 here as cháng (long), but in 家长 it is zhǎng, the same as in 校长 (xiàozhǎng, principal). Also, 家长 is not a general word for family members, so use 家人 (jiārén) when you mean relatives in general.
家长 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
家 jiā · home · 10 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
长 cháng · long · 4 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
Related words
Words that share a character with 家长.
| 回家 | huí jiā | to return home |
| 国家 | guójiā | country; nation; state |
| 家里 | jiā li | home |
| 家人 | jiārén | family member; (old) servant |
| 在家 | zàijiā | to be at home; (at a workplace) to be in (as opposed to being away on official business 出差 |
| 大家 | dàjiā | everyone; influential family |
| 家庭 | jiātíng | family; household |
| 长大 | zhǎngdà | to grow up |
| 队长 | duìzhǎng | captain; team leader |
| 作家 | zuòjiā | author |
| 科学家 | kēxuéjiā | scientist |
| 市长 | shìzhǎng | mayor |
Questions about 家长
What does 家长 mean?
家长 (jiāzhǎng) means "head of a household; family head" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 家长?
家长 is made of 2 characters: 家 (10 strokes), 长 (4 strokes). That is 14 strokes in total.
Is 家长 an HSK word?
Yes. 家长 is on the HSK 2 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 家长 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 家长 is written 家長.
What is the difference between 家长 and 父母?
父母 (fùmǔ) simply means mother and father. 家长 refers to whoever is responsible for a child, which can include grandparents or guardians, and it sounds more official, like in school notices.
Can I call my own parents 家长 in conversation?
You can, but it sounds a bit formal or like school language. In casual talk people usually say 我爸妈 (wǒ bà mā) or 我父母 (wǒ fùmǔ) instead.