住 (zhù): to live

Meanings

1 to live
2 to reside
3 to stay

Characters

住

zhù

to live; to stay; to stop

Person radical 亻 + 主 (master) — a person who is master of a place lives there.

Examples

你住在哪里？

Nǐ zhù zài nǎlǐ?

Where do you live?

我住在北京。

Wǒ zhù zài Běijīng.

I live in Beijing.

他住在学校。

Tā zhù zài xuéxiào.

He lives at the school.

Tips

grammar

住 as a complement after verbs means 'firmly' or 'to hold steady': 记住 (remember firmly), 抓住 (grab hold of), 站住 (stand still/halt).

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (radical form of 人)

Left-side person radical, the side form of 人. Anchors 住 in the human-activity family — living, lodging, halting are all things people do. Same radical drives 你 (you), 他 (he), 休 (rest), 信 (trust). Pairs with the phonetic on the right.

phonetic

主 zhǔ

host; master; main

Right side 主 supplies the sound (zhǔ → zhù, a tone shift) plus a strong semantic echo: 主 means 'host/master' — the one who stays put while guests come and go. So 住 = a person who is the host = 'to stay, reside'. Phono-semantic with unusually tight semantics. 主 itself is a lamp on a stand (the dot is the flame).