卜
2 readings · tap one to hear it
(bound form) to divine
- HSK 3.0
- Level 7–9
- Strokes
- 2
- Radical
- 卜 itself
- Structure
- Overlaid 叠加
- Traditional
- 卜
- Common rank
- #1,411
- Unicode
- U+535C
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How 卜 is formed
Pictograph (象形字)
A crack on an oracle bone
Components 丨 丶
How to remember it
divination · Heisig RSH #43
walking stick + a drop of — as a component also called: magic wand, divining rod
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Words with 卜
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 吉卜力工作室 | Studio Ghibli, Japanese film studio | |
| 吉卜赛人 | Gypsy | |
| 萝卜白菜，各有所爱 | (saying) one man's meat is another man's poison; to each his own | |
| 萝卜青菜，各有所爱 | see 蘿蔔白菜，各有所愛|萝卜白菜，各有所爱[luo2 bo5 bai2 cai4 , ge4 you3 suo3 ai4] | |
| 易卜生 | Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), Norwegian dramatist, author of Doll's House 玩偶之家 | |
| 花心大萝卜 | (coll.) womanizer; skirt-chaser | |
| 阿卜杜拉 | Abdullah (name) | |
| 心里美萝卜 | Chinese roseheart radish (shinrimei radish), green on the outside, purple-red on the insid… | |
| 未卜先知 | (idiom) to foresee the future (without divination); to know beforehand through uncanny ins… | |
| 拔出萝卜带出泥 | lit. when you pull a radish out of the ground, some dirt comes up with it (idiom); fig. to… | |
| 萝卜快了不洗泥 | when radishes are selling fast, one doesn't take the time to wash the soil off them (idiom… | |
| 小萝卜头 | (coll.) kid; little tyke | |
| 空心萝卜 | useless person | |
| 小红萝卜 | small red radish | |
| 一个萝卜一个坑 | lit. every turnip to its hole (idiom); fig. each person has his own position; each to his … | |
| 卜骨 | oracle bone | |
| 都卜勒 | variant of 多普勒[Duo1 pu3 le4] | |
| 前途未卜 | hanging in the balance; the future is hard to forecast; ¿Qué serà?; who knows what the fut… | |
| 卜甲 | oracle tortoise shell | |
| 威卜 | vaporizer (e-cigarette) (loanword) |
Sound family
These characters use 卜 as their sound component — compare how they read.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 卜 sound part | divination, fortune-telling; prophecy | |
| 补 | to fix, to mend, to patch, to restore | |
| 扑 | to attack, to beat, to hit, to strike | |
| 朴 | plain, simple; sincere; surname | |
| 赴 | to attend, to go to, to be present | |
| 仆 | to fall forward; prostrate, prone; servant | |
| 讣 | obituary, death notice | |
| 钋 | polonium |