拙

zhuō
adjective #29,945

Meanings

  1. 1 clumsy; awkward
  2. 2 inelegant; unskilled
  3. 3 my own (humble)

Examples

HSK 4
Tā zì zhī bǐ zhuō, dàn jiānchí měitiān liàn zì.
He knows his writing is clumsy, but he persists in practicing calligraphy every day.
HSK 7-9
Qǐng duō guānzhào wǒ zhè zhuō zuò, búlìn cìjiào.
Please be kind to my humble work and feel free to offer your guidance.

Tips

usage
拙 is commonly used in humble self-referential expressions: 拙作 (my humble work), 拙笔 (my clumsy writing), 拙荆 (my wife - humble). It signals modesty about one’s own abilities or creations.

Components

radical
扌 shǒu
hand (radical form of 手)
The hand radical marks 拙 as a quality of the hands: clumsy, unskilled, awkward in handiwork. From physical clumsiness the meaning generalised to inelegant in any sense, and to a humble first-person ("my clumsy effort"). Family: 巧 skilful, 技 skill, 把 grasp, 招 beckon.
phonetic
出 chū
to come out
出 supplies the sound chū → zhuō, a related but irregular drift. The picture of a foot stepping out of a hollow lends no semantic load; this is a phonetic borrowing. Same phonetic family: 屈 bend, 黜 dismiss, 茁 sprout - all chū/zhuō/qū syllables.

Stroke Order

拙 zhuō