琵
Tap the pinyin to hear it
see 琵琶, pipa lute
- Strokes
- 12
- Radical
- 玉 +8
- Structure
- Top–bottom 上下
- Traditional
- 琵
- Common rank
- #3,341
- Unicode
- U+7435
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How 琵 is formed
Phono-semantic compound (形声字)
玨 meaning “guitar strings” + 比 sound ()
Words with 琵
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 黑脸琵鹭 | (bird species of China) black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor) | |
| 琵嘴鸭 | (bird species of China) northern shoveler (Spatula clypeata) | |
| 白琵鹭 | (bird species of China) Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) | |
| 琵琶行 | Song of the Pipa Player, long poem by Tang poet Bai Juyi 白居易[Bai2 Ju1 yi4] | |
| 琵琶鱼 | anglerfish | |
| 琵琶骨 | (old) scapula | |
| 洋琵琶 | mandolin | |
| 琵鹭 | spoonbill (wading bird of the family Threskiornithidae) | |
| 琵琶 | pipa, Chinese lute, with 4 strings, a large pear-shaped body and a fretted fingerboard |
Sound family
Characters sharing the sound component 比 — compare how they read.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 比 sound part | to compare, liken; comparison; than | |
| 批 | comment, criticism; batch, lot; wholesale | |
| 屁 | to break wind, to fart; the buttocks | |
| 毕 | to finish, to conclude, to end; completed | |
| 庇 | cover, shield; to protect, to shelter; to harbor | |
| 毙 | to kill; to die a violent death | |
| 吡 | to blame | |
| 毗 | to aid, to help; to adjoin, to connect | |
| 秕 | chaff, husk | |
| 蚍 | mussels, shellfish | |
| 蓖 | the castor-oil plant; Ricinus commumis | |
| 砒 | arsenic | |
| 妣 | one's deceased mother | |
| 枇 | loquat tree | |
| 纰 | carelessness; error, mistake; spoiled silk | |
| 貔 | fox, leopard, panther | |
| 仳 | separate, part company | |
| 舭 | bilge | |
| 芘 | common mallow; Malva sylvestris |