族

Tap the pinyin to hear it

race; nationality; ethnicity; clan; by extension, social group (e.g. office workers 上班族)

Sound it out + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

Ideographic compound (会意字)

A group of people that swear by 矢 a single flag 方

Components 方矢 ? unknown part

tribe · Heisig RSH #999

banner + 矢 dart

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

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

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
高山族	Gāo shān zú	Gaoshan aborigines (Taiwan), "mountain tribes" (Tw); Taiwanese aborigines (PRC)
民族大学	Mín zú Dà xué	University for Nationalities (university of ethnic studies)
人族	rén zú	Hominini
大族	dà zú	large and influential family; clan
族人	zú rén	clansman; clan members; relatives; ethnic minority
一族	yī zú	social group; subculture; family; clan; see also 族[zu2]
国族	guó zú	people of a country; nation
水族	Shuǐ zú	Shui ethnic group
水族	shuǐ zú	collective term for aquatic animals
多民族国家	duō mín zú guó jiā	multiethnic state
大理白族自治州	Dà lǐ Bái zú Zì zhì zhōu	Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, in Yunnan Province 雲南省\|云南省[Yun2 nan2 Sheng3]
家族	jiā zú	family; clan
白族	Bái zú	Bai ethnic group
民族学	mín zú xué	ethnology; anthropology
北方民族大学	Běi fāng Mín zú Dà xué	Northern Nationalities University NNU at Yingchuan, Ningxia (former Northwestern Second Co…
开车族	kāi chē zú	motorists
黑道家族	Hēi dào Jiā zú	The Sopranos (US TV series)
长阳土家族自治县	Cháng yáng Tǔ jiā zú Zì zhì xiàn	Changyang Tujia Autonomous County, in Yichang City 宜昌市[Yi2 chang1 Shi4], Hubei
族长	zú zhǎng	clan elder
巴布拉族	Bā bù lā zú	Papora or Papura, one of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan

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

Character	Pinyin	Meaning
族 sound part	zú	race, nationality, ethnicity; tribe, clan
簇	cù	bunch, cluster; crowd, swarm
镞	zú	arrowhead, barb; quick, swift
蔟	cù	nest; silkworm frame; to collect