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磔

Mandarin · pinyin zhé

old term for the right-falling stroke in Chinese characters (e.g. the last stroke of 大 dà), now called 捺 nà
sound made by birds (onom.)
(literary) to dismember (form of punishment)
to spread

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磔: zhé · to dismember, tear apart; downward stroke slanting right

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2 · zhe2

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1character link30same-tone records2source references

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zaak3 · zaak6

Cantonese word readings for 磔. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

character

(literary) to dismember the body as a punishment by tearing off the limbs with several wagons
(literary) to rip open an animal as a sacrifice offered to gods
(literary, Chinese calligraphy) synonym of 捺 (nà)

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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