州 (zhōu) is a Chinese character meaning “an administrative division: a prefecture in old China, or a”. It is written from 川 (river) and 丶 (dot stroke) and 丶 (dot stroke) and 丶 (dot stroke), and takes 6 strokes.
Build the character for “prefecture; state”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
川 + 丶 + 丶 + 丶
Overlapping structure
- 川 river · chuān unknown
- 丶 dot stroke · zhǔ unknown
- 丶 dot stroke · zhǔ unknown
- 丶 dot stroke · zhǔ unknown
Structure from: Unicode U+5DDE; modern decomposition candidate checked against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 stroke geometry
Memory aid
Three streams of a river (川), each with a dot (丶) sitting in it — small patches of land in the water. People settle on them, and the settlement becomes a district: 州.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
6 strokes
In real words
- 广州guǎng zhōuGuangzhou (Canton), capital of Guangdong province州 = zhōu
- 州长zhōu zhǎnggovernor (of a US state); prefectural chief州 = zhōu
- 杭州háng zhōuHangzhou (city in Zhejiang, China)州 = zhōu
- 汝州Rǔ zhōuRuzhou (a city in Henan, on the Ru River)州 = zhōu
- 徐州Xú zhōuXuzhou (city in Jiangsu)州 = zhōu
- 郑州Zhèng zhōuZhengzhou (capital of Henan Province)州 = zhōu
- 鄂州è zhōuEzhou (a city in Hubei)州 = zhōu
Go deeper
All readings
prefecture; state
an administrative division: a prefecture in old China, or a state in countries such as the US; also part of many city names
行政区划单位。古代中国的一级行政区，现也指美国等国的州；许多城市名里也带这个字。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 广州guǎng zhōuGuangzhou (Canton), capital of Guangdong province州 = zhōu
- 州长zhōu zhǎnggovernor (of a US state); prefectural chief州 = zhōu
- 杭州háng zhōuHangzhou (city in Zhejiang, China)州 = zhōu
- 汝州Rǔ zhōuRuzhou (a city in Henan, on the Ru River)州 = zhōu
- 徐州Xú zhōuXuzhou (city in Jiangsu)州 = zhōu
- 郑州Zhèng zhōuZhengzhou (capital of Henan Province)州 = zhōu
- 鄂州è zhōuEzhou (a city in Hubei)州 = zhōu
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 州 mean?
州 (zhōu) means an administrative division: a prefecture in old China, or a state in countries such as the US; also part of many city names.
How do you pronounce 州?
It is pronounced zhōu.
What parts is 州 made of?
川 (river) and 丶 (dot stroke) and 丶 (dot stroke) and 丶 (dot stroke). The recorded source is: Unicode U+5DDE; modern decomposition candidate checked against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 stroke geometry. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 州 have?
6. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 州?
巛. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 州?
Common ones are 广州 and 州长. The reading of 州 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.