咋

zhā
#2,824 most
frequent character
used in 咋呼[zha1hu5], Taiwan pr. [ze2]

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

咋 has 口 mouth as its meaning part and 乍 zhà as a sound part. It first meant a loud sound. That grew to a shout, and then to suddenly. Read zǎ, it means how or why, borrowed only for its sound; read zé, it means to bite or gnaw, also borrowed for its sound.

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Same Characters, Different Readings

咋zé
(literary) to bite, to gnaw
HSK 6
咋zǎ
(dialect) why, how, what

Homophones

HSK 6
渣zhā
slag (in mining or smelting)

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