百 (bǎi): hundred, numerous, all kinds of

百 (bǎi) is a Chinese character meaning “hundred.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 一 (semantic) and 白 (phonetic). It ranks #407 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 百 one. Its radical form 白 (white) appears in many related characters such as 白 (bái, white), 的 (de, of), 皇 (huáng, emperor).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. hundred
  2. numerous
  3. all kinds of

Etymology & Origin

百

pictophoneticone

Decomposition: ⿱一白 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

Practice writing 百 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 百

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
老百姓nounlǎo bǎi xìngordinary people5
百货nounbǎi huògeneral merchandise6
百分点nounbǎi fēn diǎnpercentage point6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
百万nounbǎi wànmillion
百老汇proper-nounbǎi lǎo huìBroadway (New York City)
百分nounbǎi fēnpercent
百分之百phrasebǎi fēn zhī bǎia hundred percent
数百万shù bǎi wànseveral million
百万富翁nounbǎi wàn fù wēngmillionaire
百合nounbǎi hé(botany) lily
百姓nounbǎi xìngcommon people
数百shù bǎiseveral hundred
成百上千chéng bǎi shàng qiānhundreds
百灵nounbǎi línglark (bird of family Alaudidae)
百叶窗nounbǎi yè chuāngshutter
百年nounbǎi niánhundred years
百货公司nounbǎi huò gōng sīdepartment store
百科全书bǎi kē quán shūencyclopedia
107
Total compounds
86
As first character
3
As last character
11
As middle character

百 appears in 107 compound words: 86 as the first character, 3 as the last, and 11 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 百 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

卷juǎn
0.56455,192 co-occurrences
十shí
0.559133,120 co-occurrences
姓xìng
0.53231,463 co-occurrences
五wǔ
0.50760,682 co-occurrences
二èr
0.49989,408 co-occurrences
七qī
0.49536,952 co-occurrences
千qiān
0.49436,214 co-occurrences
八bā
0.49339,062 co-occurrences
六liù
0.47537,930 co-occurrences
三sān
0.46774,528 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (60)

百般刁难bǎibān diāonànHSK 7+

to create innumerable obstacles; to make things difficult for; to create obstructions of every description

phrase
百弊丛生bǎi bì cóng shēngHSK 7+

All the ill effects appear. (idiom)

phrase
百步穿杨bǎibùchuānyángHSK 7+

to shoot with great precision

phrase
百尺竿头bǎi chǐ gān tóuHSK 7+

to be at the highest level of enlightenment (Buddhist expression)

phrase
百辞莫辩bǎi cí mò biànHSK 7+

see 百口莫辯|百口莫辩

phrase
百读不厌bǎidúbùyànHSK 4+

worth reading a hundred times; can be reread many times with delight

phrase
百端待举bǎiduān dàijǔHSK 6+

much remains to be done; numerous tasks remain to be undertaken

phrase
百儿八十bǎi'erbāshíHSK 1+

a hundred or slightly fewer

百废待举bǎifèidàijǔHSK 7+

synonym of 百廢待興 /百废待兴 (bǎifèidàixīng, “many abandoned or neglected tasks or projects are waiting to be undertaken”)

phrase
百废待兴bǎifèidàixīngHSK 7+

many abandoned or neglected tasks or projects are waiting to be undertaken

phrase
百废俱兴bǎifèijùxīngHSK 7+

all neglected tasks are being undertaken; all that was left undone is now being undertaken

phrase
百分之百bǎifēnzhībǎiHSK 4+

one hundred percent; out and out; absolute

phrase

Showing 12 of 60 idioms containing 百.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这家公司有上百名员工,分布在不同的城市。

Zhè jiā gōngsī yǒu shàng bǎi míng yuángōng, fēnbù zài bùtóng de chéngshì.

This company has hundreds of employees distributed in different cities.

百度新闻Feb 2026

排山倒海 扑面而来!六百只宋代瓷碗在这叠成墙

pái shān dǎo hǎi pū miàn ér lái ! liù bǎi zhī sòng dài cí wǎn zài zhè dié chéng qiáng

Overwhelming and coming! Six hundred Song Dynasty porcelain bowls are stacked on this wall

百度新闻Feb 2026

茶百道新春送暖发起“致敬城市守夜人计划”

chá bǎi dào xīn chūn sòng nuǎn fā qǐ zhì jìng chéng shì shǒu yè rén jì huá

Chabadao Launches "Tribute to the City's Nightwatchmen Program" in Chinese New Year

百度新闻Feb 2026

坐拥百万粉丝的他,为何归零重启,一头扎进金山田...

zuò yōng bǎi mò fěn sī de tā , wéi hé guī líng chóng qǐ , yī tóu zhā jìn jīn shān tián . . .

He has millions of fans, why zero reboot, head into the gold mountain field...

百度新闻Feb 2026

“希望老百姓安宁幸福” 他的新春愿望和冬窝子的雪一...

xī wàng lǎo bǎi xìng ān nìng xìng fú tā de xīn chūn yuàn wàng hé dōng wō zǐ de xuě yī . . .

"I hope the people will be peaceful and happy." His New Year's wish is the same as the snow in the winter nest...

百度新闻Feb 2026

春晚引爆机器人热潮!上百股或受益,节前逾20亿抢筹..

chūn wǎn yǐn bào jī qì rén rè cháo ! shǎng bǎi gǔ huò shòu yì , jié qián yú yì qiāng chóu . .

Spring Festival Gala Sparks Robot Boom! Hundreds of Stocks May Benefit, Over 2 Billion Yuan Snapped Up Before Holiday...

Tatoeba

每月六百元,每周一天休息,行吗?

Měiyuè liù bǎi yuán, měizhōu yī tiān xiūxi, xíng ma?

Six hundred dollars a month, with a day rest every week. That works for you?

Tatoeba

如果你有一百万円,你会用它来做什么?

Rúguǒ nǐ yǒu yī bǎi wàn yuán, nǐ huì yòng tā lái zuò shénme?

Supposing you had one million yen, what would you do with it?

Tatoeba

百合的香气充满了整个房间。

Bǎihé de xiāngqì chōngmǎn le zhěnggè fángjiān.

A smell of lilies filled the room.

Tatoeba

出席的学生不下五百人。

Chūxí de xuésheng bù xià wǔ bǎi rén.

No fewer than five hundred students were present.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 一 (one) component

白 Radical Family — Characters sharing the white radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced bǎi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 百 (bǎi) mean in Chinese?
百 (bǎi) primarily means "hundred." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #407 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 百 and 怕?
百 (bǎi) and 怕 (pà) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 白 vs 忄 (same 白 component).
How many strokes does 百 have?
百 is written with 6 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 百?
The radical associated with 百 is 白 (white). This radical appears in many characters related to white.
What are the components of 百?
百 is composed of: 一 (semantic), 白 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱一白 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 百?
Common words with 百 include: 百万 (bǎi wàn, "million"); 百老汇 (bǎi lǎo huì, "Broadway (New York City)"); 百分 (bǎi fēn, "percent"); 百分之百 (bǎi fēn zhī bǎi, "a hundred percent"); 数百万 (shù bǎi wàn, "several million"). There are over 107 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 百 (bǎi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bǎi: 柏 (cedar). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 百 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 百 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 百 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.