傍 (bàng): near, approaching, to depend on

傍 (bàng) is a Chinese character meaning “near.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亻 (structural) and 旁 (structural). It ranks #2457 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 傍 someone 亻 by your side 旁; 旁 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 亻 (person) appears in many related characters such as 人 (rén, person), 什 (shén, what), 今 (jīn, now).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. near
  2. approaching
  3. to depend on

Etymology & Origin

傍

ideographicSomeone 亻 by your side 旁; 旁 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰亻旁 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 傍

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
傍晚nounbàng wǎnin the evening5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
依山傍水phraseyī shān bàng shuǐmountains on one side and water on the other
依傍verbyī bàngto rely on
傍人门户phrasebàng rén mén hùto be dependent upon sb
傍家儿bàng jiā rlover
傍大款verbbàng dà kuǎnto live off a rich man
傍柳随花bàng liǔ suí huāprostitute
傍边verbbàng biānnear
傍近bàng jìnto be close to
傍人篱壁bàng rén lí bìto depend on others
傍黑nounbàng hēidusk
傍亮nounbàng liàngdawn
傍午nounbàng wǔtowards noon
偎傍wēi bàngto snuggle up to
14
Total compounds
79
As first character
14
As last character
7
As middle character

傍 appears in 14 compound words: 79 as the first character, 14 as the last, and 7 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 傍 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

晚wǎn
0.63611,430 co-occurrences
晨chén
0.419416 co-occurrences
依yī
0.362530 co-occurrences
匆cōng
0.35224 co-occurrences
早zǎo
0.344550 co-occurrences
倚yǐ
0.33126 co-occurrences
乞qǐ
0.32646 co-occurrences
忙máng
0.32580 co-occurrences
仔zǐ
0.321134 co-occurrences
海hǎi
0.3191,052 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

傍柳随花bàng liǔ suí huāHSK 7+

prostitute

phrase
傍人门户bàngrénménhùHSK 5+

to depend on others; to be unable to live independently

phrase
依山傍水yīshānbàngshuǐHSK 5+

next to the mountains yet close to a body of water (usually referring to a scenic place)

phrase
傍人篱壁bàng rén lí bìHSK 6+

to depend on others

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

作为傍民,我们有责任保护环境。

zuò wéi bàng mín , wǒ men yǒu zé rèn bǎo hù huán jìng .

As citizens, we have a responsibility to protect the environment.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

傍晚时分,不少游客到石臼湖看日落。

bàng wǎn shí fēn , bù shǎo yóu kè dào shí 臼 hú kàn rì luò .

In the evening, many tourists visit Shijiu Lake to watch the sunset.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

但倘若只是强行拼凑,纵有七十二变的神通傍身,重复的救场桥段仍难免让观众产生审美疲劳。

dàn tǎng ruò zhī shì qiáng háng pīn còu , zòng yǒu qī shí èr biàn de shén tōng bàng shēn , chóng fù de jiù chǎng qiáo duàn réng nán miǎn ràng guàn zhòng chǎn shēng shěn měi pí láo .

But if the story is merely cobbled together, even with the magical ability to transform in seventy-two ways, the repetitive plot devices used to save the day will inevitably lead to viewer fatigue.

TvbsApr 2026

国5傍晚塞爆!北返车辆涌现“时速仅10公里” ...

guó 5 bàng wǎn sāi bào ! běi fǎn chē liàng chōng xiàn shí sù jǐn 1 0 gōng lǐ . . .

National Highway 5 is gridlocked in the evening! Traffic heading north is moving at "just 10 km/h" ...

UdnnewsindexApr 2026

雷雨带进逼南部陆地!锋面主体傍晚才抵达 粉专:将达降雨高峰期

léi yǔ dài jìn bī nán bù lù dì ! fēng miàn zhǔ tǐ bàng wǎn cái dǐ dá fěn zhuān : jiāng dá jiàng yǔ gāo fēng qī

Thunderstorm band approaching the southern mainland! Main body of the front won’t arrive until evening; Facebook page: Rainfall will peak

東方日報Apr 2026

早前缅甸被禁锢获救港人 昨日傍晚由泰国返港

zǎo qián miǎn diàn bèi jīn 锢 huò jiù gǎng rén zuó rì bàng wǎn yóu tài guó fǎn gǎng

The Hong Kong resident who had been detained in Myanmar and subsequently rescued returned to Hong Kong from Thailand yesterday evening

Tatoeba

这艘船会在傍晚出发去英国。

Zhè sōu chuán huì zài bàngwǎn chūfā qù Yīngguó.

The boat is to leave for England this evening.

Tatoeba

傍晚我喜欢沿着湖边散步。

Bàngwǎn wǒ xǐhuan yánzhe húbiān sànbù.

At nightfall I like following the tradition of taking a walk along the lakeside.

Tatoeba

汤姆死在了他和玛丽结婚的那天傍晚。

Tāngmǔ sǐ zài le tā hé Mǎlì jiéhūn de nàtiān bàngwǎn.

Tom died in the evening of the day he and Mary got married.

Tatoeba

傍晚时分,天空泛着紫色的光。

Bàngwǎn shífēn, tiānkōng fàn zhe zǐsè de guāng.

The sky illumined in purple in the evening.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced bàng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 傍 (bàng) mean in Chinese?
傍 (bàng) primarily means "near." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2457 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 傍 have?
傍 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 傍?
The radical associated with 傍 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 傍?
傍 is composed of: 亻 (structural), 旁 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻旁 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 傍?
Common words with 傍 include: 傍晚 (bàng wǎn, "in the evening"); 依山傍水 (yī shān bàng shuǐ, "mountains on one side and water on the other"); 依傍 (yī bàng, "to rely on"); 傍人门户 (bàng rén mén hù, "to be dependent upon sb"); 傍家儿 (bàng jiā r, "lover"). There are over 14 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 傍 (bàng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bàng: 帮 (to help), 邦 ((bound form) country), 棒 (stick), 膀 (upper arm), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 傍 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 傍 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 傍 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.