板 (bǎn): board, plank

板 (bǎn) is a Chinese character meaning “board, plank.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 木 (semantic) and 反 (phonetic). It ranks #930 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 板 wood. Its radical form 木 (tree) appears in many related characters such as 本 (běn, (bound form) root), 机 (jī, machine, opportunity), 条 (tiáo, strip).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. board, plank

Etymology & Origin

板

pictophoneticwood

Decomposition: ⿰木反 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 板

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
老板nounlǎo bǎnvariant of 老闆|老板5
黑板nounhēi bǎnblackboard3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
地板noundì bǎnfloor
甲板nounjiǎ bǎndeck (of a ship or boat)
滑板nounhuá bǎnskateboard
天花板tiān huā bǎnceiling (of a room)
木板nounmù bǎnslab
踏板nountà bǎnpedal (in a car, on a piano etc)
板子nounbǎn ziboard
板球nounbǎn qiúcricket (ball game)
古板adjectivegǔ bǎnoutmoded
面板nounmiàn bǎnpanel
板凳nounbǎn dèngwooden bench or stool
死板adjectivesǐ bǎnrigid
样板nounyàng bǎntemplate
呆板adjectivedāi bǎnstiff
石板nounshí bǎnslab
104
Total compounds
41
As first character
58
As last character
1
As middle character

板 appears in 104 compound words: 41 as the first character, 58 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 板 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

凳dèng
0.5372,406 co-occurrences
甲jiǎ
0.51818,390 co-occurrences
矢shǐ
0.51122 co-occurrences
块kuài
0.5117,308 co-occurrences
踏tà
0.4923,056 co-occurrences
滑huá
0.4876,406 co-occurrences
模mó
0.47614,616 co-occurrences
跷qiāo
0.476158 co-occurrences
篮lán
0.4723,977 co-occurrences
跳tiào
0.4705,346 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

板块构造bǎnkuài gòuzàoHSK 5+

plate tectonics

noun
板上钉钉bǎnshàngdìngdīngHSK 7+

sure; certain; without a doubt

phrase
刻板印象kèbǎn yìnxiàngHSK 4+

stereotype (conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image)

noun
拼花地板pīn huā dì bǎnHSK 5+

floor with tiled design

phrase
桌椅板凳zhuōyǐbǎndèngHSK 7+

tables, chairs and stools; furniture (in general)

noun
坐冷板凳zuò lěngbǎndèngHSK 7+

to hold an unimportant post and be neglected; to be sidelined; to be given the cold shoulder

verb

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

施工现场的木板堆放不规范,存在安全隐患。

Shīgōng xiànchǎng de mùbǎn duīfàng bù guīfàn, cúnzài ānquán yǐnhuàn.

The wooden boards at the construction site are not stacked properly, posing safety hazards.

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

眼镜店老板:钦佩神韵揭露迫害的勇气和智慧

yǎn jìng diàn lǎo bǎn : qīn pèi shén yùn jiē lù pò hài de yǒng qì hé zhì huì

Optical shop owner: Admire Shen Yun's courage and wisdom in exposing persecution

NewtalkFeb 2026

中国网军4千帐户攻击高市早苗 矢板明夫:台日两国正面对相同挑战

zhōng guó wǎng jūn 4 qiān zhàng hù gōng jī gāo shì zǎo miáo shǐ bǎn míng fū : tái rì liǎng guó zhèng miàn duì xiāng tóng tiāo zhàn

4,000 accounts of China's cyber army attacked Sanae Takaichi Akio Yaita: Taiwan and Japan are facing the same challenges

今天的經理人Feb 2026

当老板问 “How’s everything?...

dāng lǎo bǎn wèn H o w s e v e r y t h i n g ? . . .

When the boss asks, "How's everything?...

百度新闻Feb 2026

用金牌当屏保,宁忠岩不过是把冷板凳坐热

yòng jīn pái dāng bǐng bǎo , nìng zhōng yán bù guò shì bǎ lěng bǎn dèng zuò rè

Using the gold medal as a screensaver, Ning Zhongyan is just sitting on the cold bench to heat up

百度新闻Feb 2026

“维多利亚的秘密”前老板:我当初太天真、愚蠢、轻信..

wéi duō lì yà de mì mì qián lǎo bǎn wǒ dāng chū tài tiān zhēn yú chǔn qīng xìn . .

"Former Victoria's Secret boss: I was naive, stupid and gullible...

Tatoeba

你跟老板合得来吗?

Nǐ gēn lǎobǎn hédelái ma?

Do you get along with your boss?

Tatoeba

这家公司的老板是谁?

Zhè jiā gōngsī de lǎobǎn shì shéi?

Who's the boss of this company?

Tatoeba

你跟你的老板说什么了?

Nǐ gēn nǐ de lǎobǎn shuō shénme le?

What did you tell your boss?

Tatoeba

站在窗口的是你们的老板吗?

Zhàn zài chuāngkǒu de shì nǐmen de lǎobǎn ma?

Is that your boss at the window?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 木 (wood) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced bǎn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 板 (bǎn) mean in Chinese?
板 (bǎn) primarily means "board, plank." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #930 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 板 and 饭?
板 (bǎn) and 饭 (fàn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 木 vs 饣 (same 反 component).
How many strokes does 板 have?
板 is written with 8 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 板?
The radical associated with 板 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 板?
板 is composed of: 木 (semantic), 反 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰木反 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 板?
Common words with 板 include: 老板 (lǎo bǎn, "variant of 老闆|老板"); 地板 (dì bǎn, "floor"); 甲板 (jiǎ bǎn, "deck (of a ship or boat)"); 滑板 (huá bǎn, "skateboard"); 天花板 (tiān huā bǎn, "ceiling (of a room)"). There are over 104 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 板 (bǎn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bǎn: 版 (a register), 扳 (to pull), 办 (to take care of (a matter)), 半 (half), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 板 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 板 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 板 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.