Definitions
to bite
Etymology
About
The character 齰 denotes the action of biting or gnawing, appearing primarily in classical and literary Chinese rather than in everyday speech. It is built on a phono-semantic principle: the left-hand semantic radical 齒 (teeth), a full character, signals the use of teeth, and the right-hand phonetic element 乍 provides the pronunciation zé or zhà, with the exact reading depending on the dialect. The character completely resisted character simplification, so it retains its traditional form, and the prominent 齒 radical continues to directly highlight the physical involvement of teeth, making it a vivid and highly specific verb for the act of biting or gnawing.
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