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Mythic Mandarin

差 (chā): meaning and stroke order

差 (chā) means difference; discrepancy, (math.) difference (amount remaining after a subtraction).

差

Simplified
差
Traditional
差 (same form)
Pinyin
chā · chà · chāi · cī

Stroke order of 差

差

  • chā difference; discrepancy; (math.) difference (amount remaining after a subtraction)
  • chà different; wrong; mistaken
  • chāi to send (on an errand); (archaic) person sent on such an errand
  • 9 strokes

Stroke by stroke

Meaning of 差

  1. chā
    • difference; discrepancy
    • (math.) difference (amount remaining after a subtraction)
    • (literary) a little; somewhat; slightly
  2. chà
    • different
    • wrong; mistaken
    • to fall short; to lack
    • not up to standard; inferior
    • Taiwan pr. [cha1]
  3. chāi
    • to send (on an errand)
    • (archaic) person sent on such an errand
    • job; official post
  4. cī
    • used in 參差|参差[cen1 ci1]

Radical and structure

差
Radical 工 (Kangxi radical 48) · 10 strokes

Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan database. Structure: the shapes a character is written with (BabelStone IDS), not necessarily parts that carry meaning or sound.

Words with 差

差 in our stories

Preview version — Chinese review in progress.

  • 大学毕业那年,沈佳去了加拿大读研究生,两个人之间差了十二个小时。

    dàxué bìyè nà nián Shěn Jiā qù le Jiānádà dú yánjiūshēng liǎng gè rén zhījiān chà le shí'èr gè xiǎoshí

    The year they graduated, Shen Jia went to Canada for a master's degree, twelve hours apart.

    From the story Twelve hours apart HSK 4

  • 一位美食作家在网上写了一篇文章,说他的菜越来越咸,服务也越来越差。

    yí wèi měishí zuòjiā zài wǎngshang xiě le yì piān wénzhāng shuō tā de cài yuèláiyuè xián fúwù yě yuèláiyuè chà

    A food writer published an article online saying his dishes were getting saltier and the service worse.

    From the story A second chance HSK 5

  • 他坐在机场的咖啡店里,越想越难过,觉得自己的运气差到了极点。

    tā zuò zài jīchǎng de kāfēidiàn lǐ yuè xiǎng yuè nánguò juéde zìjǐ de yùnqi chà dào le jídiǎn

    He sat in the airport cafe, feeling worse the more he thought about it, convinced his luck had hit rock bottom.

    From the story The old man who lost his horse HSK 6

Stories using 差

Dictionary data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Stroke data: Hanzi Writer data, derived from Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License). Animation: Hanzi Writer (MIT licence). Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan (Unicode License v3).