八
Tap the pinyin to hear it
eight
- HSK 3.0
- Level 1
- Old HSK
- Level 1
- Strokes
- 2
- Radical
- 八 itself
- Structure
- Single component 独体
- Traditional
- 八
- Common rank
- #268
- Unicode
- U+516B
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How 八 is formed
Ideographic compound (会意字)
Two bent lines meaning "to divide"
How to remember it
eight · Heisig RSH #8
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Words with 八
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 八公山区 | Bagongshan, a district of Huainan City 淮南市[Huai2 nan2 Shi4], Anhui | |
| 八分之一 | one eighth | |
| 八公山 | see 八公山區|八公山区[Ba1 gong1 shan1 Qu1] | |
| 八面体 | octahedron | |
| 八小时工作制 | eight-hour workday system | |
| 八加一 | (slang) alcohol; liquor (euphemistic substitute for 酒[jiu3], from 8+1=9, 九[jiu3] being a h… | |
| 八相成道 | the eight stages of the Buddha's life (Buddhism) | |
| 一二八事变 | January 28 Incident (1932), military conflict between China and Japan in Shanghai | |
| 三八线 | 38th parallel, forming the DMZ border between North and South Korea | |
| 正儿八经 | serious; earnest; real; true | |
| 八行书 | formal recommendation letter in eight columns | |
| 三八 | International Women's Day 婦女節|妇女节[Fu4 nu:3 jie2], 8th March; foolish; stupid | |
| 八法 | eight methods of treatment (TCM) | |
| 五花八门 | myriad; all kinds of; all sorts of | |
| 八月之光 | Light in August (novel by William Faulkner 威廉·福克納|威廉·福克纳[Wei1 lian2 · Fu2 ke4 na4]) | |
| 江八点 | Jiang Zemin's 江澤民|江泽民[Jiang1 Ze2 min2] eight propositions on developing relations between … | |
| 八开 | octavo | |
| 高八度 | an octave higher (music) | |
| 八风 | see 八風穴|八风穴[ba1 feng1 xue2] | |
| 八正道 | the Eight-fold Noble Way (Buddhism) |
Sound family
These characters use 八 as their sound component — compare how they read.