Meaning of 治
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- to rule
- to govern
- to manage
- to control
- to harness (a river)
- to treat (a disease)
- to wipe out (a pest)
- to punish
How to use 治
治 links ideas of controlling, governing, and curing. It often appears in compounds like 治疗 (zhìliáo, to treat) and 政治 (zhèngzhì, politics), but it also works alone with diseases. Example: 这种病能治好。(Zhè zhǒng bìng néng zhì hǎo.) This illness can be cured.
治 has the water radical 氵 on the left and 台 on the right. Picture people building a platform to control flood water, since taming rivers was the first job of any ruler.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes confuse 治 with 冶 (yě, to smelt), which has two dots 冫 instead of three. Remember that 治 deals with water, so it needs all three drops of 氵.
治 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.
治 zhì · to rule · 8 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 治.
| 治疗 | zhìliáo | to treat (an illness); medical treatment |
| 政治 | zhèngzhì | politics; political |
| 治安 | zhì'ān | law and order; public security |
| 治理 | zhìlǐ | to govern; to administer |
| 防治 | fángzhì | to prevent and cure; prevention and cure |
| 三明治 | sānmíngzhì | (loanword) sandwich |
| 治病 | zhì bìng | to treat an illness |
| 整治 | zhěngzhì | to bring under control; to regulate |
| 统治 | tǒngzhì | to rule (a country); to govern |
| 治愈 | zhìyù | to cure; to restore to health; uplifting; heartwarming |
| 救治 | jiùzhì | to provide critical care (to a patient or a diseased plant) |
| 根治 | gēnzhì | to bring under permanent control; to effect a radical cure |
Questions about 治
What does 治 mean?
治 (zhì) means "to rule; to govern" and is used as a verb.
How do you write 治?
治 is made of 1 character: 治 (8 strokes). That is 8 strokes in total.
Is 治 an HSK word?
Yes. 治 is on the HSK 4 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 治 and 治疗?
治疗 is more formal and is common in medical writing, as in 接受治疗 (jiēshòu zhìliáo, to receive treatment). 治 alone is more casual and often takes a result, as in 治好 (zhì hǎo, to cure) or 治病 (zhì bìng, to treat an illness).
Why is 治 in the word for sandwich?
三明治 (sānmíngzhì) is a sound loanword from English "sandwich". Here 治 is used only for its sound zhì and has nothing to do with governing or curing.