zhù
noun #50,611

Meanings

  1. 1 the wick of an oil lamp
  2. 2 to burn (incense)
  3. 3 classifier for sticks of burning incense

Examples

HSK 6
Tā zài fóxiàng qián diǎn le yí zhù xiāng.
She lit a stick of incense before the Buddha statue.
HSK 6
Dēngzhù shāo jìn, zhǔrén qù huàn xīn de.
The lamp wick had burned out, so the host went to replace it.

Tips

usage
Two everyday uses: the noun 灯炷 ('lamp wick'), and the measure word in 一炷香 ('one stick of incense') - a phrase also used to mean roughly the time it takes one incense stick to burn.

Components

radical
huǒ
fire
Left side is the fire radical , since a wick is the part that burns and the verb sense is 'to set alight'.
phonetic
zhǔ
master; sound element
Right side supplies the sound, with a tone shift to . Fittingly, itself depicts a lamp flame, echoing this character's wick sense.

Stroke Order

zhù