白 (bái): white, snowy, pure, bright, empty, blank
白 (bái) is a Chinese character meaning “white.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 日 (structural). It ranks #286 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 白 a burning candle; the rays of the sun. Its radical form 白 (white) appears in many related characters such as 百 (bǎi, hundred), 的 (de, of), 皇 (huáng, emperor).
Definitions
- white
- snowy
- pure
- bright
- empty
- blank
Etymology & Origin
ideographicA burning candle; the rays of the sun
Stroke Order
Practice writing 白 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
HSK Vocabulary with 白
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | HSK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 明白adjective/verb | míng bai | clear | 3 |
| 白色noun | bái sè | white | 2 |
| 白天noun | bái tiān | daytime | 1 |
| 蛋白质noun | dàn bái zhì | protein | 6 |
| 白白adverb | bái bái | in vain | 6 |
| 白领noun | bái lǐng | white-collar | 6 |
| 白酒noun | bái jiǔ | baijiu, a spirit usually distilled from sorghum | 4 |
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 白痴 | bái chī | idiocy |
| 白人 | bái rén | white man or woman |
| 白宫 | bái gōng | White House |
| 白费 | bái fèi | to waste (one's energy etc) |
| 白金 | bái jīn | platinum |
| 白粉 | bái fěn | face powder |
| 白鲸 | bái jīng | beluga whale |
| 白旗 | bái qí | white flag |
| 白吃 | bái chī | to eat without paying |
| 白水 | bái shuǐ | plain water |
| 白菜 | bái cài | Chinese cabbage, esp. napa cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. pekinensis) |
| 白发 | bái fà | white or gray hair |
| 白搭 | bái dā | no use |
| 白话 | bái huà | spoken language |
| 白喉 | bái hóu | diphtheria |
白 appears in 100 compound words: 98 as the first character, 1 as the last, and 1 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 白 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (32)
to spin daydreams; to indulge in wishful thinking; to build castles in the air
white terror; White Terror (the suppression of political dissidents in Taiwan by the Kuomintang (1949–1987))
freakishness; changeable and strange; changes in human affairs often take freakish forms
white terror; White Terror (the suppression of political dissidents in Taiwan by the Kuomintang (1949–1987))
freakishness; changeable and strange; changes in human affairs often take freakish forms
Showing 12 of 32 idioms containing 白.
Example Sentences
白色的墙壁让房间看起来更加明亮宽敞。
Báisè de qiángbì ràng fángjiān kàn qǐlai gèngjiā míngliàng kuānchang.
White walls make the room look brighter and more spacious.
擅闯特朗普住所海湖庄园警戒线男子被击毙 白宫指特勤局果断行动
shàn chuǎng tè lǎng pǔ zhù suǒ hǎi hú zhuāng yuán jǐng jiè xiàn nán zǐ bèi jī bì bái gōng zhǐ tè qín jú guǒ duàn háng dòng
A man was killed after trespassing on the cordon of Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence, the White House accused the Secret Service of decisive action
深夜,黄金、白银、原油齐涨,美股三大指数集体上涨丨..
shēn yè , huáng jīn bái yín yuán yóu qí zhǎng , měi gǔ sān dà zhǐ shǔ jí tī shǎng zhǎng 丨 . .
Late at night, gold, silver, crude oil rose, the three major U.S. stock indexes rose collectively 丨....
...年初一,浙大发顶刊论文:用人工智能为膜蛋白造“装..
. . . nián chū yī , zhè dà fā dǐng kān lún wén yòng rén gōng zhì néng wéi mó dàn bái zào zhuāng . .
On New Year's Day, Zhejiang University published a paper in a top-tier journal: Using artificial intelligence to "design" membrane proteins...
新春走基层丨95后潜水员与千年白鹤梁的水下之约
xīn chūn zǒu jī céng 丨 hòu qián shuǐ yuán yú qiān nián bái hè liáng de shuǐ xià zhī yāo
Spring Festival at the Grassroots Level | Post-95 Diver's Underwater Encounter with the Millennia-Old Baiheliang
泽连斯基称乌克兰对白俄罗斯总统实施制裁
zé lián sī jī chèn wū kè lán duì bái é luó sī zǒng tǒng shí shī zhì cái
Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine has imposed sanctions on the President of Belarus.
"你真的想那样吗?" 小白兔问。
"nǐ zhēn de xiǎng nàyàng ma?" xiǎobáitù wèn.
"Do you really wish that?" asked the little white rabbit.
你明白我的意思吗？
Nǐ míngbai wǒ de yìsi ma?
Do you understand what I'm saying?
哪个更好，红线呢还是白线？
Nǎge gèng hǎo, hóngxiàn ne háishi báixiàn?
Which is better, red thread or white thread?
你比较喜欢红酒还是白酒？
Nǐ bǐjiào xǐhuan hóng jiǔ háishi báijiǔ?
Do you prefer red or white wine?
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 白 (bái) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 白 and 黑?
How many strokes does 白 have?
What is the radical of 白?
What are the components of 白?
What are common words containing 白?
What characters sound the same as 白 (bái)?
Is 白 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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