King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “rut”

辙
zhé
Traditional: 轍
rut; track of a wheel (Taiwan pr. [che4]); (coll.) the direction of traffic; a rhyme (of a song, poem etc); (dialect) (usu. after 有 (yǒu) or 没 (méi)) way; idea

The closest CC-CEDICT match for rut is 辙 (zhé), defined as: rut; track of a wheel (Taiwan pr. [che4]); (coll.) the direction of traffic; a rhyme (of a song, poem etc); (dialect) (usu. after 有 (yǒu) or 没 (méi)) way; idea.

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

辙 zhé
track, rut; stuck in a rut
radical 159 ⾞ · 16 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “rut”

WordPinyinMeaning
故辙 (故轍)gù zhérut (made by vehicles); (fig.) conventional ways
窠臼kē jiùstereotypical pattern; rut

Related words

Other words that share a character with 辙.

WordPinyinMeaning
重蹈覆辙 (重蹈覆轍)chóng dǎo fù zhélit. to follow in the tracks of an overturned cart (idiom); fig. to follow a path that led to failure in the past
覆辙 (覆轍)fù zhéthe tracks of a cart that overturned; (fig.) a path that led to failure in the past
如出一辙 (如出一轍)rú chū yī zhéto be precisely the same; to be no different
没辙 (沒轍)méi zhéat one's wit's end; unable to find a way out
南辕北辙 (南轅北轍)nán yuán běi zhéto act in a way that defeats one's purpose (idiom)
改弦易辙 (改弦易轍)gǎi xián yì zhéchange of string, move out of rut (idiom); dramatic change of direction; to dance to a different tune

See also: Japanese symbol for “rut”.

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.

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