Meaning of 紫
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- purple
- violet
How to use 紫
紫 usually appears in compounds rather than alone, most often as 紫色 (zǐsè) for the color purple. It also shows up in words like 紫外线 (zǐwàixiàn, ultraviolet ray) and 紫罗兰 (zǐluólán, violet or stock flower). Example: 她穿了一件紫色的裙子。(Tā chuān le yí jiàn zǐsè de qúnzi.) She wore a purple dress.
紫 (zǐ) has 此 (cǐ) on top and 糸 (silk) below. Picture a piece of silk dyed purple, with 此 hinting at the sound zǐ.
Common mistake: Learners often mix up 紫 (zǐ, purple) with 子 (zǐ) or 字 (zì) because they sound alike. Remember that 紫 is third tone and always has the silk part 糸 at the bottom.
紫 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.
紫 zǐ · purple · 12 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Related words
Words that share a character with 紫.
Questions about 紫
What does 紫 mean?
紫 (zǐ) means "purple; violet" and is used as a adjective.
How do you write 紫?
紫 is made of 1 character: 紫 (12 strokes). That is 12 strokes in total.
Is 紫 an HSK word?
Yes. 紫 is on the HSK 5 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How do you say light purple or dark purple in Chinese?
Add 浅 (qiǎn, light) or 深 (shēn, dark) before 紫: 浅紫色 (qiǎn zǐsè) is light purple and 深紫色 (shēn zǐsè) is dark purple.
Why is ultraviolet called 紫外线?
紫外线 literally means "ray beyond purple." Ultraviolet light lies just past the violet end of the visible spectrum, so the Chinese name describes it directly.