zhāng

Traditional: 张

#1738 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

(measure word for flat objects), to open, to spread, a surname

Word origin

A phono-semantic compound of 弓 (gōng, bow) and 长 (cháng, long, phonetic), originally meaning to draw a bow, hence to stretch open.

Origin
phono-semantic
Root
弓 (gōng, bow) + 长 (cháng, phonetic)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 张

Examples

Give me a sheet of paper.

There are two photographs on the table.

He bought a cinema ticket.

Please open your mouth.

Mr Zhang is my teacher.

张 (zhāng) is most often a measure word for flat objects such as paper, tickets, and tables, and as a verb means to open or spread. It is also one of the most common Chinese surnames.

Appears in 1 word

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 张.

Used in

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This word is part of lesson 35.