者 (zhě) is a Chinese character meaning “suffix marking the person or thing that does something”. It is written from 耂 ("old" top form (老字头) — an elder with long hair leaning on a stick) and 日 (sun; day), one above the other, and takes 8 strokes.
Build the character for “the one who does it (-er)”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
耂 + 日
Top–bottom structure
- 耂 "old" top form (老字头) — an elder with long hair leaning on a stick · lǎo meaning
- 日 sun; day · rì meaning
Structure from: modern-glyph decomposition (IDS ⿱耂日; 笔画核验 hanzi-writer-data 耂 4 + 日 4 = 8)
Memory aid
An elder (耂) sitting above the sun (日) — the one who has watched the most days go by. 者 marks the one who does something: 记者 the one who records, 作者 the one who writes.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
8 strokes
In real words
- 记者jì zhěreporter; journalist者 = zhěHSK 4
- 作者zuò zhěauthor; writer者 = zhěHSK 4
- 侍者shì zhěattendant; waiter者 = zhě
- 或者huò zhěor; either者 = zhěHSK 3
- 患者huàn zhěpatient (medical)者 = zhě
Go deeper
All readings
-er; one who
suffix marking the person or thing that does something ("-er", "-ist"); in classical usage, a particle marking the topic
用在动词、形容词或词组后面，指做某事的人或事物，如「记者」「作者」；文言中也用作提顿语气词。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 记者jì zhěreporter; journalist者 = zhěHSK 4
- 作者zuò zhěauthor; writer者 = zhěHSK 4
- 侍者shì zhěattendant; waiter者 = zhě
- 或者huò zhěor; either者 = zhěHSK 3
- 患者huàn zhěpatient (medical)者 = zhě
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 者 mean?
者 (zhě) means suffix marking the person or thing that does something ("-er", "-ist"); in classical usage, a particle marking the topic.
How do you pronounce 者?
It is pronounced zhě.
What parts is 者 made of?
耂 ("old" top form (老字头) — an elder with long hair leaning on a stick) and 日 (sun; day), one above the other. The recorded source is: modern-glyph decomposition (IDS ⿱耂日; 笔画核验 hanzi-writer-data 耂 4 + 日 4 = 8). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 者 have?
8. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 者?
老. 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 者?
Common ones are 记者 and 作者. The reading of 者 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.