(bān): team, class, grade, (military) squad, work shift

(bān) is a Chinese character meaning “team.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural), (structural) and (structural). It ranks #884 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, cutting 刂 a piece of jade 王 in two, symbolizing two classes. Its radical form (jade) appears in many related characters such as (wán, to play), (xiàn, to appear), (qiú, ball used for playing games (variant of 球[qiu2])).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. team
  2. class
  3. grade
  4. (military) squad
  5. work shift

Etymology & Origin

ideographicCutting 刂 a piece of jade 王 in two, symbolizing two classes

Decomposition: ⿲王刂王 (layout: left-middle-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbshàng bānto go to work1
nounháng bān(scheduled) flight4
verbxià bānto finish work1
verbjiā bānto work overtime4
verbzhí bānto work a shift6
nounbān jíclass (group of students)3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yè bānnight shift
bān jīairliner
gēn bānattendant
bān zhǎngclass monitor
dāng bānto work one's shift
huàn bānto change shift
lún bānshift working
bān chēregular bus (service)
quán bānthe whole class
wǎn bānnight shift
zǎo bānearly shift
lǐng bānsupervisor
tóng bānto be in the same class
bān fángjail
bān zhǔ rènteacher in charge of a class
100
Total compounds
45
As first character
53
As last character
2
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 45 as the first character, 53 as the last, and 2 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.

0.754378,641 co-occurrences
西
0.554389,578 co-occurrences
háng
0.551135,121 co-occurrences
0.497224,754 co-occurrences
chán
0.4727,644 co-occurrences
xùn
0.43517,208 co-occurrences
fǎn
0.41823,670 co-occurrences
0.40413,014 co-occurrences
0.37712,306 co-occurrences
0.36927,936 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

ànbùjiùbānHSK 4+

to do something in an orderly manner; to follow the prescribed order; to keep to the conventional ways

phrase
bānchán lǎmaHSK 7+

Panchen Lama

noun
Bāndá YàqíHSK 5+

Banda Aceh (the capital and largest city of Aceh, Indonesia)

bānménnòngfǔHSK 7+

to show off one's inferior talent or skill in front of an expert; to teach an expert how to do things

phrase
cháng tài fēn bānHSK 4+

(Tw) grouping of students into classes of mixed ability

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我们有三十个学生,大家相处得很融洽。

Wǒmen bān yǒu sānshí gè xuéshēng, dàjiā xiāngchǔ de hěn róngqià.

There are thirty students in our class, and everyone gets along very well.

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Feb 2026

...走进中国〉春节商机!电话接不完 美甲师加到凌晨三点

. . . zǒu jìn zhōng guó chūn jié shāng jī ! diàn huà jiē bù wán měi jiǎ shī jiā bān dào líng chén sān diǎn

... Entering China〉 Spring Festival business opportunities! The phone can't be answered, and the nail technician works overtime until three o'clock in the morning

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

受冬季风暴影响 美国数千架次航被取消

shòu dōng jì fēng bào yǐng xiǎng měi guó shǔ qiān jià cì háng bān bèi qǔ xiāo

Thousands of flights in the United States were canceled due to the winter storm

百度新闻Feb 2026

马年新春第一,武汉95后高铁司机的“飞驰人生”

mǎ nián xīn chūn dì yī bān , wǔ hàn hòu gāo tiě sī jī de fēi chí rén shēng

The first shift in the New Year of the Horse, Wuhan 95 high-speed train driver's "flying life".

百度新闻Feb 2026

大湾区航空飞往台北航遇大雾盘旋后折返,航司回应:..

dà wān ōu háng kōng fēi wǎng tái běi háng bān yù dà wù pán xuán hòu shé fǎn , háng sī huí yīng . .

The flight to Taipei of the Greater Bay Area Airline in the fog circled after turning back, the airline company responded:...

百度新闻Feb 2026

春节不打烊,广州交投集团中欧列预计发运9列、货值..

chūn jié bù dǎ 烊 , guǎng zhōu jiāo tóu jí tuán zhōng ōu bān liè yù jì fā yùn liè huò zhí . .

Guangzhou Transport Investment Group's China-Europe freight trains to operate throughout Spring Festival, with 9 trains scheduled to depart carrying goods worth...

Tatoeba

这个有多少男生?

Zhège bān yǒu duōshao nánshēng?

How many boys are in this class?

Tatoeba

你们一般几点下

Nǐmen yībān jǐdiǎn xiàbān?

When do you usually get off work?

Tatoeba

火车几点钟开?

Zhè bān huǒchē jǐ diǎn zhōng kāi?

What time does the train leave from here?

Tatoeba

里有没有一个叫做珀西的人?

Nǐ bān lǐ yǒuméiyǒu yī gè jiàozuò pò xī de rén?

Is there a Percy in your class?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced bān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 班 (bān) mean in Chinese?
班 (bān) primarily means "team." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #884 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 班 have?
班 is written with 10 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 班?
The radical associated with 班 is 王 (jade). This radical appears in many characters related to jade.
What are the components of 班?
班 is composed of: 王 (structural), 刂 (structural), 王 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿲王刂王 with a left-middle-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 班?
Common words with 班 include: 上班 (shàng bān, "to go to work"); 航班 (háng bān, "(scheduled) flight"); 下班 (xià bān, "to finish work"); 加班 (jiā bān, "to work overtime"); 值班 (zhí bān, "to work a shift"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 班 (bān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bān: 扳 (to pull), 般 (sort), 颁 (to promulgate), 搬 (to move (i.e. relocate oneself)), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 班 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 班 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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.