座 (zuò): seat

Meanings

1 seat
2 measure word for buildings, mountains, bridges

Characters

座

zuò

seat; measure word for buildings/mountains

Examples

一座山

Yí zuò shān

a mountain

这座城市很大。

Zhè zuò chéngshì hěn dà.

This city is very big.

那座桥很漂亮。

Nà zuò qiáo hěn piàoliang.

That bridge is very beautiful.

Tips

grammar

座 is used as a measure word for large, solid, immovable things: mountains (山), buildings (楼), cities (城市), bridges (桥), statues (雕像).

usage

As a noun, 座 means seat — but 座位 is more commonly used for that meaning.

Components

radical

广 guǎng

shelter; lean-to (radical)

Top-left shelter radical (Kangxi #53) — depicts a roof leaning against a wall, an open-fronted building. Indexes 座 in the architecture family with 庄 manor, 库 warehouse, 庭 courtyard, 床 bed. The radical pictures the structure within which a 座 (seat, raised platform) is placed.

phonetic

坐 zuò

to sit

Inside 坐 supplies the sound (zuò, exact match) and most of the meaning. 坐 itself depicts two people 人 facing each other on the ground 土 — sitting. Inside the shelter above, 座 is the place where one sits: a seat, a base, a measure word for buildings. The phonetic and the semantic align almost perfectly.