诛 (zhū): to put (a criminal) to death

Meanings

1 to put (a criminal) to death
2 to execute
3 to denounce; to condemn

Characters

诛

zhū

to execute, to denounce; radical 讠 (speech)

Examples

乱臣贼子，人人得而诛之。

Luàn chén zéi zǐ, rénrén dé ér zhū zhī.

Traitorous officials and rebels — anyone may put them to death.

他被处以诛九族的酷刑。

Tā bèi chǔyǐ zhūjiǔzú de kùxíng.

He was sentenced to the cruel punishment of execution to the ninth degree of kinship.

Tips

history

The most chilling collocation is 诛九族 — 'execute to the ninth degree of kinship', a punishment for treason that wiped out an entire extended family. 诛 still carries that imperial-court weight; modern speech prefers 处决 or 处死 for plain 'execute'.

register

诛 today is literary or set-phrase only: 口诛笔伐 (denounce by mouth and pen), 天诛地灭 (may heaven and earth destroy them), 诛心 (impugn one's motives). It is also the title of the 仙侠 novel/game franchise 《诛仙》 (Jade Dynasty).

Components

radical

讠 yán

speech; words (radical form of 言)

Left-side speech radical, the compressed form of 言. Originally 诛 meant 'to denounce in words, to indict,' from which it escalated to 'to put to death (after public accusation)' — execution as the formal endpoint of a verbal charge. Same speech radical sits on 谴 to condemn, 诫 to admonish.

phonetic

朱 zhū

vermilion red; surname Zhu (here phonetic)

Right 朱 supplies the sound — same zhū, same tone, a clean phonetic. 朱 itself depicts a tree marked with red pith (the original meaning). Same phonetic family includes 株 stump, 珠 pearl, 蛛 spider — all reading zhū. Helpful anchor for guessing pronunciation of new compounds with 朱.