‘袜子’ (wà zi) is the standard Mandarin word for ‘socks’—a common item of clothing worn on the feet, usually made of cotton, wool, or synthetic fibers. The first character, 袜 (wà), specifically means ‘sock’ and carries the core meaning; the second character, 子 (zi), is a very common noun suffix in Chinese that adds a diminutive or general nominalizing function—similar to how ‘-let’ or ‘-y’ works in English (e.g., ‘booklet’, ‘doggy’), but here it simply makes the word sound natural and complete as a countable noun.

This word is used in everyday contexts—from shopping and laundry to giving instructions or describing appearance. It’s always plural in English but treated as a singular countable noun in Chinese: you say 一双袜子 (yī shuāng wàzi, ‘a pair of socks’) when referring to one matching set, and use measure words like 双 (shuāng) or 只 (zhī) depending on whether you mean a pair or a single sock. It appears frequently in conversations about dressing, weather, hygiene, and travel.