破
Tap the pinyin to hear it
broken; damaged; worn out; lousy; rotten; to break, split or cleave; to get rid of; to destroy; to break with; to defeat; to capture (a city etc); to expose the truth of
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
Words with 破
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 一语道破 | one word says it all (idiom); to hit the nail on the head; to be pithy and correct | |
| 不破不立 | without destruction there can be no construction | |
| 大破大立 | to destroy the old and establish the new (idiom); radical transformation | |
| 老牛拉破车 | see 老牛破車|老牛破车[lao3 niu2 po4 che1] | |
| 头破血流 | lit. head broken and blood flowing; fig. badly bruised | |
| 破体字 | nonstandard or corrupted form of a Chinese character | |
| 老牛破车 | lit. old ox pulling a shabby cart (idiom); fig. slow and inefficient | |
| 破家 | to destroy one's family | |
| 破音字 | character with two or more readings; character where different readings convey different m… | |
| 破发 | (of a stock) to fall below the issue price; (of a tennis player) to break serve (abbr. for… | |
| 破门而入 | to break the door down and enter (idiom) | |
| 鱼死网破 | lit. either the fish dies or the net splits; a life and death struggle (idiom) | |
| 破口 | tear or rupture; to have a tear (e.g. in one's clothes); without restraint (e.g. of sweari… | |
| 一语破的 | see 一語中的|一语中的[yi1 yu3 zhong4 di4] | |
| 破事 | trivial matter; trifle; annoying thing | |
| 破开 | to split; to cut open | |
| 道破 | to expose; to reveal | |
| 破门 | to burst or force open a door; to excommunicate sb (from the Roman Catholic Church); to sc… | |
| 打破 | to break; to smash | |
| 点破 | to lay bare in a few words; to expose with a word; to point out bluntly |
Sound family
Characters sharing the sound component 皮 — compare how they read.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 皮 sound part | skin, hide, fur, feathers | |
| 波 | waves, ripples, breakers; undulations | |
| 被 | bedding; a passive particle meaning "by" | |
| 坡 | slope, hillside, embankment | |
| 彼 | that, those, the other | |
| 玻 | glass | |
| 疲 | weak, tired, exhausted | |
| 颇 | rather, quite; partial, biased | |
| 陂 | dam, embankment; reservoir | |
| 簸 | dustpan; to winnow, to toss | |
| 跛 | lame | |
| 帔 | cape, robe, skirt | |
| 铍 | beryllium |