HSK 6 · Verbs

折磨 zhémo “to torment” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 折磨 means

  1. to torment
  2. to torture
  3. suffering

How to say 折磨

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale折zhé2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own磨moneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

折磨 in a sentence

  1. 别折磨他们了。

    Bié zhémo tāmen le.

    Stop tormenting them.

    Sentence #10023022 from Tatoeba

How 折磨 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 折 (zhé) with each of its parts in a different colour
折zhéto break
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒu
  • 斤axe · jīn
The character 磨 (mo) with each of its parts in a different colour
磨móto rublight in 折磨
  • 麻hemp · máSound part
  • 石stone · shíMeaning part

石 hints at the meaning (stone); 麻 (má) hints at the sound. Compare it with mo.

How to write 折磨

折 7 strokes · 磨 16 strokes

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

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

Words related to 折磨

Words with 折

打折dǎzhé · to give a discount折zhé · to break折腾zhēteng · to toss and turn曲折qūzhé · winding挫折cuòzhé · setback周折zhōuzhé · twists and turns转折zhuǎnzhé · turning point

Words with 磨

琢磨zuómo · to ponder磨合móhé · to break in

More words: Common Verbs

展现zhǎnxiàn · to show瞻仰zhānyǎng · to look up to with reverence折zhé · to break遮挡zhēdǎng · to block争夺zhēngduó · to fight over征服zhēngfú · to conquer挣扎zhēngzhá · to struggle折腾zhēteng · to toss and turn

FAQs

折磨 (zhémo) means “to torment” or “to torture”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it zhémo: zhé with a 2nd tone, then mo with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 折磨 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zhemo with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 折磨 from the suggestions. Typing zhemo into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
折磨 is an HSK 6 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.