宰

Tap the pinyin to hear it

to slaughter; to butcher; to kill (animals etc); (coll.) to fleece; to rip off; to overcharge; (bound form) to govern; to rule; (bound form) (a title for certain government officials in ancient China)

Make a writing worksheet

HSK 3.0: Level 7–9
Old HSK: Level 6
Strokes: 10
Radical: 宀 +7
Structure: Top–bottom 上下
Traditional: 宰
Common rank: #2,519
Unicode: U+5BB0

Sound it out + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

How 宰 is formed

Ideographic compound (会意字)

A barracks 宀 where slaves 辛 live

Components 宀辛

How to remember it

butcher · Heisig RSH #2553

house + chili pepper

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

Words with 宰

The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
铁血宰相	Tiě xuè zǎi xiàng	Iron Chancellor, refers to Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), Prussian politician, minister-pr…
主宰者	zhǔ zǎi zhě	ruler
巴宰族	Bā zǎi zú	Pazeh, one of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan
任人宰割	rèn rén zǎi gē	to get trampled on (idiom); to be taken advantage of
杀猪宰羊	shā zhū zǎi yáng	to kill the pigs and slaughter the sheep (idiom)
宰人	zǎi rén	to overcharge; to rip sb off
主宰	zhǔ zǎi	to dominate; to rule; to dictate; master
宰相	zǎi xiàng	prime minister (in feudal China)
宰制	zǎi zhì	to rule; to dominate
宰客	zǎi kè	to cheat customers; to overcharge
宰了	zǎi le	(coll.) (typically used hyperbolically) to kill (sb)
宰杀	zǎi shā	to slaughter (an animal for meat); to butcher
屠宰场	tú zǎi chǎng	slaughterhouse; abattoir
宰牲节	Zǎi shēng jié	see 古爾邦節\|古尔邦节[Gu3 er3 bang1 jie2]
宰割	zǎi gē	to slaughter; (fig.) to ride roughshod over; to take advantage of (others)
挨宰	ái zǎi	to get ripped off
屠宰	tú zǎi	to slaughter; to butcher
宰予	Zǎi Yú	Zai Yu (522-458 BC), disciple of Confucius

Sound family

These characters use 宰 as their sound component — compare how they read.

Character	Pinyin	Meaning
宰 sound part	zǎi	to slaughter, to butcher; to govern, to rule
滓	zǐ	sediment, lees, dregs