Chinese symbol for “prefecture”
州
zhōu
prefecture; (old) province; (old) administrative division; state (e.g. of US)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for prefecture is 州 (zhōu), defined as: prefecture; (old) province; (old) administrative division; state (e.g. of US); oblast (Russia); canton (Switzerland).
Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.
Characters and stroke order
Other Chinese words for “prefecture”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 地区 (地區) | dì qū | region; area (informal or geographical term); prefecture (in China's administrative system) |
| 县 (縣) | xiàn | county; (Japan) prefecture |
| 府 | fǔ | seat of government; government repository (archive) |
| 专区 (專區) | zhuān qū | area established for a designated purpose; (PRC subprovincial administrative region 1949-1975) prefecture |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 州.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 州长 (州長) | zhōu zhǎng | governor (of a province or colony); (US) state governor |
| 自治州 | zì zhì zhōu | autonomous prefecture |
| 州立 | zhōu lì | state-run |
| 州界 | zhōu jiè | state border; state line |
| 副州长 (副州長) | fù zhōu zhǎng | deputy governor (of a province or colony); lieutenant governor of US state |
| 州伯 | zhōu bó | governor (of a province); provincial chief (old) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “prefecture”.
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.