Chinese Character Wiki
北

běi

north

Original meaning: 

back

Pictograph of two people standing back-to-back. Based on the original meaning "back", now written as 背. The current meaning "north" is a phonetic loan.

Components
人 iconic component

人  Iconic component

rén

  

person

匕 iconic component

匕  Iconic component

bǐ

  

spoon, (person)

Evolution

北 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
北 Seal script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Seal script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
北 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

北  

běi

north; northern; northward; (classical) to be defeated

Most common words with 北
Freq.
Word
Meaning

北京

Peking

北

north

北方

north

北部

northern part

东北

Manchuria

Component uses

Meaning component in 2 characters (0 verified)

燕 冀

Sound component in 2 characters (1 verified)

背 邶

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*pˤək

pok

běi

north


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 27.3747% of movies

1129th most common character in movies

315th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

5

Unicode

U+5317

Shuowen

“北，也。从二人相背。”


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