zhà / zhá
verb HSK 6 #1,619

Meanings

  1. 1 to burst; to explode
  2. 2 to blow up; to bomb
  3. 3 to fly into a rage
  4. 4 to scamper off; to scatter in panic

Examples

Zhàdàn bàozhà le.
The bomb exploded.
Zhè zuò qiáo bèi zhàhuǐ le.
This bridge was blown up.
听完
Tā méi tīngwán jiù zhà le.
He hadn't even finished listening before he flew into a rage.

Tips

grammar
(4th tone) = explode / bomb / rage. The deep-fry sense is filed under (2nd tone) as a separate entry. Cooking recipes use ; weapons and tantrums use .
usage
Internet slang 炸了 = 'blew up' — a post went viral, a comment section erupted, or someone lost their temper. The same also covers crowds suddenly scattering in panic, as in 炸窝 (the nest scatters).

Components

radical
huǒ
fire
Left is the indexing fire radical in its standalone four-stroke form (not compressed to the bottom-row ). It frames as a heat-driven sudden event — a flash, a burst. Same radical family: burn, explode, roast.
phonetic
zhà
suddenly (here phonetic)
Right supplies the sound exactly. Same phonetic family: deceive, press, how. also means 'suddenly' in classical usage, adding a faint semantic boost — a sudden burst of fire fits the explosion sense perfectly.

Stroke Order

zhà