造 from HSK Level 3 Vocabulary List

The Chinese character 造 (zào) is composed of two parts: the radical 戈 (gē), which means "spear" or "weapon," and the phonetic component 皂 (zào), which means "black" or "dark." The combination of these two components suggests the idea of "using a weapon to create or make something."The earliest known use of the character 造 dates back to the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BC), where it was used in the sense of "to build" or "to construct." Over time, the meaning of the character expanded to include the ideas of "to create," "to make," and "to produce." In modern Chinese, 造 is commonly used in words related to manufacturing, construction, and creativity.For example, the word 制造 (zhìzào) means "to manufacture" or "to produce," while the word 创造 (chuàngzào) means "to create" or "to invent." The character 造 can also be used in a more abstract sense, as in the phrase 造句 (zàojù), which means "to compose a sentence."In terms of its pronunciation, the character 造 is pronounced as "zào" in Mandarin Chinese. The tone of the character is the third tone, which is a low, falling-rising tone.Overall, the character 造 is a versatile and important character in Chinese, with a rich history and a wide range of meanings.