栅 (zhà): fence

Meanings

1 fence
2 railing
3 palisade

Characters

栅

zhà

fence; palisade

Examples

HSK 3

院子外面有一道木栅。

Yuànzi wàimiàn yǒu yī dào mù zhà.

There is a wooden fence outside the yard.

HSK 7-9

栅栏上爬满了藤蔓。

Zhàlan shang pá mǎn le téngmàn.

The fence is covered with climbing vines.

Tips

usage

栅 is mainly used in the compound 栅栏 ('fence/railing'). It can also be read as shān in technical contexts like 光栅 ('diffraction grating') in physics.

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Left tree radical - wood as material. A 栅 is a fence or palisade, built from vertical wooden stakes lashed together. The radical anchors the material aspect, with same-family chars 椅 chair, 板 plank, 桩 post, 杆 pole.

semantic

册 cè

volume; book of bamboo slips

Right 册 - a pictograph of bamboo or wooden slips bound together with a cord through the middle. The image of upright slats tied in a row is exactly a palisade fence, so 册 here serves as a semantic component rather than a phonetic, painting the fence visually.