Chinese character for tea: 茶 (chá)
The Chinese character for tea is 茶 (chá). It means tea and appears in 喝茶 (hē chá, to drink tea) and 绿茶 (lǜchá, green tea). China is the birthplace of tea, and the English word 'tea' and 'chai' both come from Chinese.
How 茶 is built
茶 has the plant radical 艹 on top, then 人 (person), and 木 (tree) at the bottom. As a memory aid, tea is a plant 艹 that a person 人 picks from a tree-like bush 木. In ancient texts tea was often written 荼, and 茶 developed from it by dropping one stroke. 茶 is identical in simplified and traditional Chinese.
茶 chá · tea
- 艹cǎo — grass
- 人rén — person
- 木mù — tree
- 十 — ten
- 一 — horizontal stroke
- 丨 — vertical stroke
- 八bā — eight
- 十 — ten
Origin hint: plant (from the Make Me a Hanzi dataset; treat as a memory aid where history is uncertain)
How 茶 is used
Before you use it as a tattoo or design: 茶 is identical in both scripts and makes a calm, simple design for tea lovers.
Questions
What is the Chinese character for tea?
茶 (chá) means “tea”.
How do you pronounce 茶?
茶 is pronounced chá.