Chinese Character Wiki
比

bǐ, bī, bì

to compare

Two spoons side-by-side, conveying the meaning "to put together", "match", or "compare". 匕 also represents the sound.

Components
匕 sound,iconic component

匕  Sound Iconic component

bǐ

  

spoon, (person)

Depicts a spoon.

匕 sound,iconic component

匕  Sound Iconic component

bǐ

  

spoon, (person)

Depicts a spoon.

Evolution

比 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
比 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
比 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
比 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
比 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

比  

bǐ

to compare, liken; comparison; than; (particle used for comparison and "-er than"); to compare; to contrast; to gesture (with hands); ratio

比  

Bǐ

Belgium; Belgian; abbr. for 比利時|比利时[Bǐ​lì​shí]

比  

bī

euphemistic variant of 屄[bī]

比  

bì

to associate with; to be near

Most common words with 比
Freq.
Word
Meaning

比

to compare

比赛

match

比较

to compare

比如

for example

相比

to compare

Component uses

Meaning component in 2 characters (0 verified)

毖 坒

Sound component in 22 characters (3 verified)

批 毕 屁 毙 庇 毗 琵 砒 蓖 吡 紕 纰 枇 篦 蚍 妣 秕 貔 舭 芘 仳 坒

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*C.pijʔ

pjijX

bǐ

compare

*pij-s

pjijH

bì

combine; all


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 96.9246% of movies

163rd most common character in movies

199th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+6BD4

Shuowen

“比，密也。二人為从，反从為比。夶，古文比。”
Sources

尤梓竹《甲骨文字考釋提要（一）》p.56

李学勤《字源》p.725



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