HSK 5 · Adjectives

紫 zǐ “purple” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 紫 means

  1. purple
  2. violet

How to say 紫

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale紫zǐ3rd tone, dipping

紫 in a sentence

  1. 他的袜子是紫色的。

    Tā de wàzi shì zǐsè de.

    His socks are purple.

    Sentence #8863197 from Tatoeba

  2. 我的男朋友想把头发染紫。

    Wǒ de nánpéngyou xiǎng bǎ tóufa rǎn zǐ.

    My boyfriend wants to dye his hair purple.

    Sentence #5631883 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  3. 如果将蓝色和红色混合，就会得到紫色。

    Rúguǒ jiāng lánsè hé hóngsè hùnhé, jiù huì dédào zǐsè.

    If you mix blue and red, you’ll get purple.

    Sentence #13539424 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 紫 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 紫 (zǐ) with each of its parts in a different colour
紫zǐpurple
  • 此this · cǐSound part
  • 糸silk · mìMeaning part

糸 hints at the meaning (silk); 此 (cǐ) hints at the sound. Compare it with zǐ.

How to write 紫

紫 12 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

紫 (zǐ) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 紫 (zǐ). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 紫

More words: Adjectives

直zhí · straight重大zhòngdà · major周到zhōudào · thoughtful主观zhǔguān · subjective自觉zìjué · conscious自私zìsī · selfish自由zìyóu · freedom自愿zìyuàn · voluntary

FAQs

紫 (zǐ) means “purple” or “violet”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it zǐ: zǐ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 紫 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 紫 from the suggestions. Typing zi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
紫 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.