noun HSK 6 #3,312

Meanings

  1. 1 the side
  2. 2 lateral
  3. 3 to lean; to incline

Examples

HSK 1
Qǐng zhàn dào lù de yòucè.
Please stand on the right side of the road.
HSK 2
Tā cè guò shēn ràng tā xiān guò.
He turned sideways to let her pass first.
HSK 6
Zhè piān wénzhāng cèzhòng tàntǎo le jiàoyù zhìdù de wèntí.
This article focuses on the problems of the education system.

Tips

usage
As a noun means 'side': 左侧 (left side), 右侧 (right side). As a verb it means 'to lean / incline', as in 倾听 (to cock one's ear and listen). Compare 侧面 (side / profile) and 侧重 (to emphasize).
register
An old reading zhāi survives only in the dialectal phrase ('lopsided, tilted'). It has no modern productive compounds; read cè everywhere in standard Chinese.

Components

radical
rén
person (left-side form of 人)
Person radical on the left. means 'side, lean to one side, sidelong glance', all human-spatial concepts; to stand is to turn one's body sideways. The same radical anchors , , , and .
phonetic
rule; then; so
Right side supplies the sound: zé drifted to cè with a regular tone-and-onset shift. itself shows a vessel beside a knife , 'rules cut into bronze'. The same phonetic drives , , and , a tight cè/zé family.

Stroke Order