折磨

折磨 zhémo

Torment (persecute)

What 折磨 means

  1. Torment (persecute)

These meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the Chinese to Pinyin translator and the Chinese to English translator, so a whole sentence containing 折磨 will read it the same way this page does.

Recognise a piece of 折磨 but not the character it belongs to? Pick the parts in the component character finder and it will name the character for you — free for every character, with nothing to sign in to.

Character by character

折磨 is written with 2 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

折
shé / zhé / zhē
Break (snap - lose money); Break (lose - fold - to turn)
磨
mó
Rub (grind - sharpen - hardship)

How to write 折磨

Stroke order is not decoration — it is what makes handwriting legible and what dictionary lookup by stroke count depends on.

Practise 折磨 on printable 田字格 sheets, trace it in the writing practice tool, or watch any other character in the Stroke Order Animator.

折磨 in a sentence

疾病折磨了他很多年。
Jíbìng zhémo le tā hěn duō nián.
Illness tormented him for many years.
等待有时是一种折磨。
Děngdài yǒushí shì yì zhǒng zhémo.
Waiting is sometimes a torment.

Every sentence on this site that uses 折磨 is collected on the 折磨 sentence page. Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.

Questions about 折磨

What does 折磨 mean in English?

折磨 is pronounced zhémo and means Torment (persecute).

How do you pronounce 折磨?

折磨 is zhémo in pinyin — written zhemo without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 折磨?

折磨 is written with 2 characters: 折 (shé / zhé / zhē) Break (snap - lose money); Break (lose - fold - to turn), 磨 (mó) Rub (grind - sharpen - hardship). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

Is 折磨 an HSK word?

Yes — 折磨 is on the official HSK 6 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 6 page.

Studied around the same time

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Translate a whole sentence containing 折磨 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 6, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.

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