bēi

humble, inferior

Pictograph of a hand holding a tool used by servants.

Evolution

卑 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

bēi

humble, low, inferior; despise; low; base; vulgar; inferior; humble

Most common words with 卑
Freq.
Word
Meaning

卑鄙

base

卑微

petty and low

自卑

self-abased

low

卑劣

base

Component uses

Meaning component in 6 characters (0 verified)

Sound component in 19 characters (3 verified)

Iconic component in 1 character (0 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*pe

pjie

bēi

low, humble

*pe

pjie

bēi

鮮卑 *s[a]r.pe Xiānbēi


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 11.9494% of movies

1933rd most common character in movies

2059th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

8

Unicode

U+5351

Shuowen

“卑,賤也,執事也。从、甲。”


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