作

zuò
#49 most
frequent character
rise, compose, pretend, affect
verb

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

作 joins 亻 person with 乍, which shows a tree being cut by a blade and also gives the sound. The first sense was 'cut tree with blade', later written 柞. With 亻, the meaning grew to 'to do', then 'to make' and 'product'.

Drawn as: tree cut by blade

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Example Sentences

他每天都要作一个小时的功课。
tā měitiān dūyào zuò yígè xiǎoshí de gōngkè 。
He has to do homework for an hour every day.
她在学校里作优秀的学生。
tāzài xuéxiào lǐ zuò yōuxiù de xuéshēng 。
She is an outstanding student at school.
在比赛中，他假装受伤来影响对手。
zài bǐsài zhōng ， tā jiǎzhuāng shòushāng lái yǐngxiǎng duìshǒu 。
In the competition, he pretended to be injured to affect his opponent.

Words with similar meanings

做zuò
to do
A general term for performing tasks or actions, broader than '作'.
创作chuàngzuò
to create
Used specifically for creating art or literature, more focused than '作'.
演yǎn
to perform
Often used in the context of performing arts, a specific use of '作' when implying acting.

Words Starting With 作

作业zuò yè
school assignment; homework; work; task; operation; to operate
作用zuò yòng
"to act on; to affect; action; function; activity; impact; result; effect; purpose; intent; to play a role; corresponds to English -ity, -ism, -ization
作者zuò zhě
author; writer
作为zuò wéi
one's conduct; deed; activity; accomplishment; achievement; to act as; as (in the capacity of); qua; to view as; to look upon (sth as); to take sth to be
作品zuò pǐn
"work (of art); opus

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