巴 (bā): Ba, a state during the Zhou dynasty (in present-day Chongqing and the eastern part of Sichuan), the east of Sichuan and Chongqing Municipality, (bound form) abbr. for 巴勒斯坦 (Palestine), 巴基斯坦 (Pakistan) or 巴西 (Brazil)

巴 (bā) is a Chinese character meaning “ba, a state during the zhou dynasty (in present-day chongqing and the eastern part of sichuan).” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 巳 (structural). It ranks #546 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. Ba, a state during the Zhou dynasty (in present-day Chongqing and the eastern part of Sichuan)
  2. the east of Sichuan and Chongqing Municipality
  3. (bound form) abbr. for 巴勒斯坦 (Palestine), 巴基斯坦 (Pakistan) or 巴西 (Brazil)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 巴

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
嘴巴nounzuǐ bamouth5
尾巴nounwěi batail5
大巴noundà bā(coll.) large bus4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
巴黎proper-nounbā líParis, capital of France
古巴proper-noungǔ bāCuba
巴斯proper-nounbā sīBath city in southwest England
巴西proper-nounbā xīBrazil
巴士nounbā shìbus (loanword)
下巴nounxià bachin
巴基斯坦proper-nounbā jī sī tǎnPakistan
巴库proper-nounbā kùBaku, capital of Azerbaijan
巴马proper-nounbā mǎsee 巴馬瑤族自治縣|巴马瑶族自治县
巴里proper-nounbā lǐBari (Puglia, Italy)
乡巴佬xiāng ba lǎo(derog.) country bumpkin
巴特bā tèBarth or Barthes (name)
巴尔的摩proper-nounbā ěr dì móBaltimore (place name, surname etc)
巴掌nounbā zhangpalm of the hand
巴格达proper-nounbā gé dáBaghdad, capital of Iraq
110
Total compounds
63
As first character
33
As last character
5
As middle character

巴 appears in 110 compound words: 63 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 5 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 巴 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

黎lí
0.66181,227 co-occurrences
嫩nèn
0.58113,318 co-occurrences
士shì
0.533190,295 co-occurrences
坦tǎn
0.51349,917 co-occurrences
淋lín
0.5096,663 co-occurrences
斯sī
0.502134,704 co-occurrences
赫hè
0.48521,184 co-occurrences
勒lè
0.48233,056 co-occurrences
伐fá
0.48012,458 co-occurrences
尔ěr
0.47064,794 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (36)

奥尔巴尼Ào'ěrbāníHSK 7+

Albany (a city, the state capital of New York, United States); a transliteration of the English surname Albany

巴尔的摩Bā'ěrdìmóHSK 6+

Baltimore

巴尔扎克Bā'ěrzhākèHSK 6+

a transliteration of the French surname Balzac

巴伐利亚BāfálìyàHSK 7+

Bavaria

巴甫洛夫Bāfǔluòfū

a transliteration of the Russian surname Павлов (Pavlov), Pavlov

巴基斯坦BājīsītǎnHSK 7+

Pakistan (a country in South Asia)

巴黎大学bā lí dà xuéHSK 7+

University of Paris

phrase
巴黎公社Bālí GōngshèHSK 7+

Paris Commune

巴伦支海BālúnzhīhǎiHSK 7+

Barents Sea (a sea)

巴拿马城Bānámǎ ChéngHSK 4+

Panama City (a city, the capital city of Panama)

巴前算后bā qián suàn hòuHSK 4+

thinking and pondering (idiom); to turn sth over in one's mind; to consider repeatedly

phrase
巴三览四bā sān lǎn sìHSK 5+

to talk about this and that (idiom); to ramble incoherently

phrase

Showing 12 of 36 idioms containing 巴.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了解巴字的来源,有助于理解中国文化。

le xiè bā zì de lái yuán , yǒu zhù yú lǐ xiè zhōng guó wén huā .

Understanding the origin of the character "巴" helps to comprehend Chinese culture.

Investing 香港Feb 2026

加拿大航空因安全局势暂停墨西哥巴亚尔塔港营运

jiā ná dà háng kōng yīn ān quán jú shì zàn tíng mò xī gē bā yà ěr tǎ gǎng yíng yùn

Air Canada suspended operations in the port of Vallarta, Mexico due to the security situation

東方日報Feb 2026

沙巴附近海域7.1级地震 暂未有伤亡报告

shā bā fù jìn hǎi yù 7 . 1 jí dì zhèn zàn wèi yǒu shāng wáng bào gào

No casualties have been reported in the waters near Sabah due to a magnitude 7.1 earthquake

EttodayFeb 2026

快讯/马来西亚沙巴凌晨发生7.1强震

kuài xùn mǎ lái xī yà shā bā líng chén fā shēng 7 . 1 qiáng zhèn

News/A 7.1 earthquake struck Sabah, Malaysia in the early morning

StheadlineFeb 2026

马来西亚沙巴外海7.1级地震 无海啸威胁

mǎ lái xī yà shā bā wài hǎi 7 . 1 jí dì zhèn wú hǎi xiào wēi xié

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake off the coast of Sabah, Malaysia, has no tsunami threat

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

巴菲特执掌的最后一季 波克夏上季依然卖超美...

bā 菲 tè zhí zhǎng de zuì hòu yī jì bō kè xià shàng jì yī rán mài chāo měi . . .

Buffett's last season at the helm Berkshire still sold super beautiful last season...

Tatoeba

你想去瓦伦西亚还是巴塞罗那?

Nǐ xiǎng qù wǎ lún Xī Yà háishi Bāsàiluónà?

Do you want to go to Valencia or Barcelona?

Tatoeba

他通过巴黎去了伦敦。

Tā tōngguò Bālí qù le Lúndūn.

He went to London via Paris.

Tatoeba

他明天将抵达巴黎。

Tā míngtiān jiāng dǐdá Bālí.

He will arrive in Paris tomorrow.

Tatoeba

他刮下靴子上的泥巴。

Tā guā xià xuēzi shàng de níbā.

He scraped the mud off his boots.

Character Family

己 Radical Family — Characters sharing the self radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced bā

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 巴 (bā) mean in Chinese?
巴 (bā) primarily means "ba, a state during the zhou dynasty (in present-day chongqing and the eastern part of sichuan)." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #546 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 巴 and 右?
巴 (bā) and 右 (yòu) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 巴 (east) vs 右 (west).
How many strokes does 巴 have?
巴 is written with 4 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 巴?
The radical associated with 巴 is 己 (self). This radical appears in many characters related to self.
What are the components of 巴?
巴 is composed of: 巳 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 巴?
Common words with 巴 include: 巴黎 (bā lí, "Paris, capital of France"); 嘴巴 (zuǐ ba, "mouth"); 古巴 (gǔ bā, "Cuba"); 巴斯 (bā sī, "Bath city in southwest England"); 巴西 (bā xī, "Brazil"). There are over 110 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 巴 (bā)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bā: 把 (to hold, measure word), 吧 (suggestion particle), 八 (eight), 爸 (father), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 巴 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 巴 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 巴 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.