褶

zhě
noun #18,900

Meanings

  1. 1 pleat
  2. 2 crease
  3. 3 fold (in fabric or skin)
  4. 4 wrinkle

Examples

HSK 3
Tā de qúnzi shàng yǒu hěnduō zhě.
Her skirt has many pleats.
HSK 6
Bǎ yīfu tàng píng, búyào liú zhězi.
Iron the clothes flat - don't leave creases.

Tips

usage
褶 appears in 褶子 (pleat, crease) and 褶皱 (wrinkle, geological fold). The reading xí exists but is archaic, referring to court dress.

Components

radical
衤 yī
clothing (radical form)
Left clothing radical (the side form of 衣) - the indexing radical. Pictures a robe with collar and crossed front. Anchors 褶 firmly in the garment family with 袖 sleeve, 裤 trousers, 裙 skirt. Here it marks the character as a feature of cloth: the gathered folds and pleats sewn into clothing for shape.
phonetic
習 xí
to practice; repeat
Right 習 (the traditional form, 习 in simplified) supplies the sound, drifting from xí to zhě along the x-/zh- shift series. The 'repeat, practice' sense lends a faint flavour: pleats are folds repeated again and again along a garment edge. 褶 retains the unsimplified 習 even in mainland orthography, an orthographic exception.

Stroke Order

褶 zhě