(): tyrant

() is a Chinese character meaning “tyrant.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic). It ranks #1821 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, rain. Its radical form (rain) appears in many related characters such as (, rain), (líng, zero), (xuě, snow).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: rain21 strokesFrequency #1821 semantic

Definitions

  1. tyrant

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticrain

Decomposition: ⿱雨⿰革月 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
zhēng bàto contend for hegemony
bà wánghegemon
bà zhànto occupy by force
chēng bàlit. to proclaim oneself hegemon
bà dàothe Way of the Hegemon
jù wú bàgiant
è bàevil tyrant
bà zhǔa powerful chief of the princes of the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC)
bà quánhegemony
héng xíng bà dàoto oppress
bà qìimperious
qī háng bà shì(idiom) to dominate the market through unfair, coercive or monopolistic practices
dú bàto dominate (a market etc)
bà wáng zhī dàothe Way of the Hegemon
dú bà yī fāngto exercise sole hegemony (idiom)
54
Total compounds
46
As first character
35
As last character
19
As middle character

appears in 54 compound words: 46 as the first character, 35 as the last, and 19 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

chèn
0.63710 co-occurrences
jié
0.63710 co-occurrences
0.58010 co-occurrences
líng
0.56816,146 co-occurrences
wáng
0.50954,006 co-occurrences
chāo
0.50226,340 co-occurrences
zhēng
0.4348,058 co-occurrences
0.42727,336 co-occurrences
shì
0.42210 co-occurrences
0.4129,834 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

dú bà yī fāngHSK 7+

to exercise sole hegemony (idiom); to dominate a whole area (market, resources etc); to hold as one's personal fiefdom

phrase
héngxíngbàdàoHSK 7+

to act in a fierce, domineering and unreasonable way

phrase
qīnánbànǚHSK 7+

to oppress the people; to act tyrannically

phrase
qīhángbàshìHSK 7+

to oppress others in the same trade and monopolize the market

phrase

Showing 4 of 6 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他在行业里称多年,是公认的领军人物。

Tā zài hángyè lǐ chēngbà duō nián, shì gōngrèn de lǐngjūn rénwù.

He has dominated the industry for many years and is a recognized leader.

EttodayFeb 2026

鹿港老街「年破2200萬人次」稱全台!網揭3大魅力:每年必去

lù gǎng lǎo jiē nián pò 萬 rén cì 稱 bà quán tái ! 網 jiē dà mèi lì měi nián bì qù

Lukang Old Street "Breaks 22 Million Visitors Annually," Dominating Taiwan! Netizens Reveal 3 Major Charms: A Must-Visit Every Year

TvbsFeb 2026

陸小改款Solterra台灣送測曝!傳導...

sù bà 陸 xiǎo gǎi kuǎn tái 灣 sòng 測 pù ! 傳 導 . . .

Subaru's facelifted Solterra spotted undergoing testing in Taiwan! Rumored to...

東方日報Feb 2026

排球精英賽 男拔力阻長天衞冕實現7連

pái qiú jīng yīng 賽 nán bá lì zǔ 長 tiān 衞 冕 實 現 連 bà

Men's volleyball team stops Changtian to defend its title in the elite volleyball tournament.

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

“超级皖”美食争赛总决赛收官 豆腐发源地淮南夺冠

chāo jí 皖 měi shí zhēng bà sài zǒng jué sài shōu guān dòu fǔ fā yuán dì huái nán duó guàn

Huainan, the birthplace of bean curd, wins "Super Wan" food competition finals

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

三星重登全球DRAM

sān xīng chóng dēng quán qiú bà zhǔ

Samsung regains global DRAM supremacy

Tatoeba

恶劣地践踏同学的午餐便当。

èbà èliè de jiàntà tóngxué de wǔcān biàndāng.

The bully stomped on his schoolmate’s lunchbox out of spite.

Tatoeba

这场战役让拿破仑称了整个欧洲。

Zhè chǎng zhànyì ràng Nápòlún chēngbà le zhěnggè ōuzhōu.

This battle left Napoleon master of Europe.

Tatoeba

我们不希望有人在这里吃王餐。

Wǒmen bù xīwàng yǒurén zài zhèlǐ chī bàwáng cān.

We don't want any freeloaders around here.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 霸 (bà) mean in Chinese?
霸 (bà) primarily means "tyrant." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1821 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 霸 have?
霸 is written with 21 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 霸?
The radical associated with 霸 is 雨 (rain). This radical appears in many characters related to rain.
What are the components of 霸?
霸 is composed of: 雨 (semantic), undefined (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱雨⿰革月 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 霸?
Common words with 霸 include: 争霸 (zhēng bà, "to contend for hegemony"); 霸王 (bà wáng, "hegemon"); 霸占 (bà zhàn, "to occupy by force"); 称霸 (chēng bà, "lit. to proclaim oneself hegemon"); 霸道 (bà dào, "the Way of the Hegemon"). There are over 54 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 霸 (bà)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bà: 八 (eight), 巴 (Ba, a state during the Zhou dynasty (in present-day Chongqing and the eastern part of Sichuan)), 叭 (denote a sound or sharp noise (gunfire etc)), 扒 (to peel), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 霸 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 霸 and the traditional form is 覇.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.