Zhu

//d͡ʒuː// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An ancient Chinese unit of weight, notionally equivalent to 100 millet seeds or 1/24 of the liang/tael/Chinese ounce, chiefly used in denominating small coins in ancient and early imperial China. historical

    "Modern research showed the correct number of millet seeds greatly exceeded surviving examples of the zhu in weight, until one tried growing older millet strains for several generations without modern agrochemicals. By the third year, his seeds produced a zhu within about 5% of its known historical value."

  2. 2
    An ancient Chinese string instrument thought to have had a rectangular zither-like body with silk strings played with a bow. historical
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname from Chinese.

Synonyms

All synonyms
chachuichuyhuan chuhuan chu (5th century state)ma chu

Example

More examples

"The Four Great Classical Novels of China are Journey to the West (西遊記, Xī Yóu Jì), Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義, Sānguó Yǎnyì), Water Margin (水滸傳, Shuǐhǔ Zhuàn), and Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢, Hóng Lóu Mèng)."

Etymology

Etymology 1

The atonal Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 銖 /铢 (zhū).

Etymology 2

The atonal pinyin romanization of the standard Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 筑 (zhù or zhú).

Etymology 3

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation for 朱 (Zhū).

Related phrases

string instrument

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.