祖 — Chinese character
祖
zǔ
ancestor, forefather; grandfather; surname
- Pinyin
- zǔ
- Radical
- 113 ⽰ (Spirit)
- Strokes
- 10
- Components
- 礻 且
- Formation
- pictophonetic — spirit; meaning component 礻; sound component 且
- Japanese
- 祖 as a kanji
Common words with 祖
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 祖国 (祖國) | zǔ guó | motherland |
| 祖先 | zǔ xiān | ancestors; forebears; (biology) ancestral species; ancient species from which present-day species evolved |
| 祖父 | zǔ fù | father's father; paternal grandfather |
| 祖母 | zǔ mǔ | father's mother; paternal grandmother |
| 祖宗 | zǔ zōng | ancestor; forebear |
| 祖师 (祖師) | zǔ shī | founder (of a craft, religious sect etc) |
| 祖父母 | zǔ fù mǔ | paternal grandparents |
| 太祖 | tài zǔ | Great Ancestor (posthumous title, e.g. for the founder of a dynasty) |
| 祭祖 | jì zǔ | to offer sacrifices to one's ancestors |
| 始祖 | shǐ zǔ | primogenitor; founder of a school or trade |
| 祖坟 (祖墳) | zǔ fén | ancestral tomb |
| 曾祖父 | zēng zǔ fù | father's father's father; paternal great-grandfather |
English words written with 祖
祖 in the Chinese classics
Occurrences: I Ching 1 · Mencius 1 · Zhuangzi 8 · Doctrine of the Mean 2
- Hexagram 62
- Mencius 3A.2
- Zhuangzi Transcendental Bliss
- Zhuangzi The Identity of Contraries
- Zhuangzi The Great Supreme
- Zhuangzi The Universe
- Zhuangzi Self-Conceit
- Zhuangzi Mountain Trees
Data: Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.