棒 (bàng): stick, club, cudgel

棒 (bàng) is a Chinese character meaning “stick.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 木 (semantic) and 奉 (phonetic). It ranks #2230 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 棒 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. stick
  2. club
  3. cudgel

Etymology & Origin

棒

pictophoneticwood

Decomposition: ⿰木奉 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 棒

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
棒球nounbàng qiúbaseball6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
棒棒糖nounbàng bàng tánglollipop
棒子nounbàng zistick
冰棒nounbīng bàngpopsicle
棍棒noungùn bàngclub
大棒dà bàngbig stick (policy etc)
金箍棒nounjīn gū bànggolden cudgel, weapon wielded by Sun Wukong in the novel Journey to the West 西遊記|西游记
棒槌nounbàng chuíwooden club (used to beat clothes in washing)
指挥棒nounzhǐ huī bàngbaton
铁棒nountiě bàngiron club
棒冰nounbàng bīngpopsicle
接力棒nounjiē lì bàngrelay baton
电棒noundiàn bàng(coll.) flashlight
控制棒nounkòng zhì bàngcontrol rods
撬棒nounqiào bàngcrowbar
棒子面儿bàng zi miàn rerhua variant of 棒子麵|棒子面
84
Total compounds
30
As first character
62
As last character
8
As middle character

棒 appears in 84 compound words: 30 as the first character, 62 as the last, and 8 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 棒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

球qiú
0.55660,682 co-occurrences
盟méng
0.54615,212 co-occurrences
棍gùn
0.4911,986 co-occurrences
涯yá
0.4905,374 co-occurrences
美měi
0.46822,922 co-occurrences
颈jǐng
0.41411 co-occurrences
糖táng
0.4031,346 co-occurrences
宇yǔ
0.39716 co-occurrences
手shǒu
0.3969,484 co-occurrences
青qīng
0.3944,654 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

棒打鸳鸯bàngdǎyuānyāngHSK 4+

to forcefully break up an affectionate couple

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这片森棒里生活着许多珍稀的野生动物。

zhè piān sēn bàng lǐ shēng huó zhe xǔ duō zhēn xī de yě shēng dòng wù .

This forest is home to many rare and endangered wildlife species.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...感谢柯建铭25年来始终站在第一线 完成交棒传承致上最高敬意

. . . gǎn xiè 柯 jiàn míng 2 5 nián lái shǐ zhōng zhàn zài dì yī xiàn wán chéng jiāo bàng chuán chéng zhì shàng zuì gāo jìng yì

... Thank you Ke Jianming for always standing on the front line for 25 years to complete the handover of the baton and inheritance, and I would like to express my highest respect

EttodayFeb 2026

好消息!龙恩手肘伤势好转已开始挥棒 仍有望出战经典赛

hǎo xiāo xī ! lóng ēn shǒu 肘 shāng shì hǎo zhuǎn yǐ kāi shǐ huī bàng réng yǒu wàng chū zhàn jīng diǎn sài

Good news! Longen's elbow injury has improved and he has begun to swing the bat and is still expected to play in the classics

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

中国信托60周年 致敬棒球拚劲

zhōng guó xìn tuō 6 0 zhōu nián zhì jìng bàng qiú 拚 jìn

The 60th anniversary of China Trust pays tribute to the hard work of baseball

99 健康网Feb 2026

穿戴震动棒晚上一直穿会坏吗?这些使用注意事项要了解

chuān dài zhèn dòng bàng wǎn shàng yī zhí chuān huì huài ma ? zhè xiē shǐ yòng zhù yì shì xiàng yāo le jiě

Does wearing a vibrator all the time at night go bad? These precautions should be understood

99 健康网Feb 2026

低糖零食有哪些?魔芋爽、原味海苔、蛋白棒可以吗

dī táng líng shí yǒu nǎ xiē ? mó 芋 shuǎng , yuán wèi hǎi 苔 , dàn bái bàng kě yǐ ma

What are the low-sugar snacks? Can konjac cool, original seaweed, and protein bars be accepted?

Tatoeba

你喜欢棒球到什么程度?

Nǐ xǐhuan bàngqiú dào shénme chéngdù?

To what degree are you interested in baseball?

Tatoeba

你昨天打棒球了没有?

Nǐ zuótiān dǎ bàngqiú le méiyǒu?

Did you play baseball yesterday?

Tatoeba

你是个很棒的画家,不是吗?

Nǐ shì gè hěn bàng de huàjiā, bùshìma?

You're a good painter, aren't you?

Tatoeba

棒球到底哪里有意思?

Bàngqiú dàodǐ nǎlǐ yǒuyìsi?

What's so interesting about baseball?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 木 (wood) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced bàng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 棒 (bàng) mean in Chinese?
棒 (bàng) primarily means "stick." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #2230 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 棒 have?
棒 is written with 12 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 棒?
The radical associated with 棒 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 棒?
棒 is composed of: 木 (semantic), 奉 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰木奉 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 棒?
Common words with 棒 include: 棒球 (bàng qiú, "baseball"); 棒棒糖 (bàng bàng táng, "lollipop"); 棒子 (bàng zi, "stick"); 冰棒 (bīng bàng, "popsicle"); 棍棒 (gùn bàng, "club"). There are over 84 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 棒 (bàng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bàng: 帮 (to help), 邦 ((bound form) country), 膀 (upper arm), 绑 (to tie), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 棒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 棒 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 棒 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.