袜子(wà zi) - socks in Mandarin

袜子 (wàzi) is socks, the knitted footwear worn inside shoes. 子 (zi) here is the common noun suffix seen on lots of everyday objects (椅子, chair; 桌子, table) and carries no meaning of its own beyond marking the word as a concrete noun.

The measure word is 双 (shuāng), used for anything that comes in a natural pair: 一双袜子 (yì shuāng wàzi), one pair of socks, the same measure word used for shoes and chopsticks. A single sock on its own is 一只袜子 (yì zhī wàzi).

袜子 (wàzi) goes on before 鞋 (xié), shoes, and the verb for both is 穿 (chuān), to wear or put on.