HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Places

中 zhōng “middle” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 中 means

  1. middle
  2. centre
  3. in
  4. among
  5. within
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • while (doing sth)
  • during
  • (dialect) OK
  • all right
  • (bound form) China
  • Chinese

How to say 中

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale中zhōng1st tone, high and level

中 in a sentence

  1. 网球在学生中非常流行。

    Wǎngqiú zài xuésheng zhōng fēicháng liúxíng.

    Tennis is very popular among students.

    Sentence #415644 from Tatoeba

  2. 你在哪儿？我在花园中。

    Nǐ zài nǎr? Wǒ zài huāyuán zhōng.

    Where are you? I’m in the garden.

    Sentence #1873066 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 中 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 中 (zhōng) with each of its parts in a different colour
中zhōngwithin; among; in
  • 口mouth · kǒu
  • 丨line · gǔn

Memory aidA line 丨 through the centre of a box 口: the middle.

How to write 中

中 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 中

Words with 中

中午zhōngwǔ · noon中国Zhōngguó · China中学zhōngxué · middle school中学生zhōngxuéshēng · middle-school student高中gāozhōng · senior high school中间zhōngjiān · middle中文Zhōngwén · Chinese language初中chūzhōng · junior high school其中qízhōng · among中旬zhōngxún · middle third of a month

More words: Places & Getting Around

外面wàimiàn · outside网上wǎngshàng · online下去xiàqù · to go down走路zǒulù · to walk汽车qìchē · car房子fángzi · house街jiē · street室shì · room

FAQs

中 (zhōng) means “middle” or “centre”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it zhōng: zhōng with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 中 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zhong with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 中 from the suggestions. Typing zhong into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
中 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 4 word list. It is not on the older 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.