字母

• Pinyin: zì mǔ
• Hanzi breakdown: 字 = 宀 (roof) + 子 (child), character or written symbol; 母 = pictograph of a woman with prominent breasts, mother

Meaning

Letter of an alphabet; alphabetic character. Refers to individual characters in any alphabetical writing system.

Commonly used to refer to letters of the Roman/Latin alphabet (英文字母) or the Chinese phonetic alphabet (拼音字母). Can also refer to letters in other scripts. 大写字母 means capital letters and 小写字母 means lowercase letters. Not used for Chinese characters (汉字).

Examples

1. 她教孩子认识英文字母，从A一直教到Z。 She taught the children the English letters, going from A all the way to Z.
2. 这个密码是由数字和字母混合组成的，很难猜到。 This password is made up of a mix of numbers and letters, making it very hard to guess.
3. 拼音是用拉丁字母来标注汉语发音的一种方法。 Pinyin is a method of using Latin letters to indicate the pronunciation of Chinese.

Usage Guide

Context: education, language learning, technology

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 英文一共有二十六个字母。(The English alphabet has twenty-six letters in total.)
• 请用大写字母填写你的姓名。(Please write your name in capital letters.)

Don't Say

• 用'字母'指汉字 (Don't use 字母 to refer to Chinese characters — use 汉字 instead)

Origin & History

Compound of 字 (character, written symbol) and 母 (mother). The 母 (mother) element suggests a foundational or primary unit — letters are the 'mothers' of words. This usage dates to classical Chinese.

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal