chà

Traditional: 差

#1694 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

poor, bad, inferior, to lack, to fall short

Word origin

An ancient character whose forms suggest grain ears of unequal length, giving the senses of difference, falling short and being inferior.

Origin
ideograph
Root
depiction of uneven grain ears, sense of difference

Stroke order

Stroke order for 差

Examples

His grades are very poor.

It is now five minutes to eight.

The service at this shop is terrible.

We are still one person short.

zhì

You should not buy goods of poor quality.

差 (chà) means poor, bad or inferior, and also to lack or fall short of a target. As in 差五分 (five minutes short), it can mark a small remaining gap.

Appears in 2 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 差.

Used in

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This word is part of lesson 34.