刨 (bào): carpenter's plane, to plane (woodwork), to shave off

刨 (bào) is a Chinese character meaning “carpenter's plane.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 包 (phonetic) and 刂 (semantic). It ranks #2945 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 刨 knife. Its radical form 刂 (knife) appears in many related characters such as 分 (fēn, to divide), 别 (bié, to leave), 到 (dào, to reach).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 刂 knife7 strokesFrequency #2945包 phonetic刂 semantic

Definitions

  1. carpenter's plane
  2. to plane (woodwork)
  3. to shave off

Etymology & Origin

刨

pictophoneticknife

Decomposition: ⿰包刂 (layout: left-right)

Components:包phonetic刂semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
刨根问底páo gēn wèn dǐto dig up roots and inquire at the base (idiom)
刨冰bào bīngshaved or crushed ice dessert or beverage
刨子bào ziplane
刨床bào chuángplaner
刨根儿páo gēn rerhua variant of 刨根[pao2 gen1]
龙门刨lóng mén bàodouble column surface grinding machine
刨花板bào huā bǎnparticle board
刨丝器bào sī qìgrater
刨工bào gōngplaning
刨笔刀bào bǐ dāopencil sharpener
刨根páo gēnlit. to dig up the root
刨程bào chéngplaning length
刨花bào huāwood shavings
刨刀bào dāoplaning tool
狗刨gǒu páodog paddle (swimming style)
16
Total compounds
88
As first character
13
As last character
0
As middle character

刨 appears in 16 compound words: 88 as the first character, 13 as the last, and 0 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 刨 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

冰bīng
0.5201,116 co-occurrences
钩gōu
0.46190 co-occurrences
瓜guā
0.440246 co-occurrences
坟fén
0.42454 co-occurrences
床chuáng
0.421216 co-occurrences
削xiāo
0.413126 co-occurrences
挖wā
0.400102 co-occurrences
椰yē
0.40030 co-occurrences
板bǎn
0.391318 co-occurrences
刀dāo
0.374156 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

刨根问底páogēnwèndǐHSK 7+

to get to the bottom of something

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们刨字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men bào zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "刨."

東方日報Apr 2026

嘉应不可能落败!CEO刨咗条单式三重彩!

jiā yīng bù kě néng luò bài ! C E O bào 咗 tiáo dān shì sān chóng cǎi !

Character Family

刂 Radical Family — Characters sharing the knife radical

剥bāo创chuàng刺cì副fù刚gāng割gē刮guā剂jì剑jiàn剧jù

Related Characters

分fēn别bié到dào前qián划huá刚gāng利lì刻kè刀dāo切qiē

Homophones — Characters pronounced bào

胞bāo饱bǎo包bāo薄báo宝bǎo保bǎo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 刨 (bào) mean in Chinese?
刨 (bào) primarily means "carpenter's plane." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2945 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 刨 and 炮?
刨 (bào) and 炮 (pào) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 刂 vs 火 (same 包 component).
How many strokes does 刨 have?
刨 is written with 7 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 刨?
The radical associated with 刨 is 刂 (knife). This radical appears in many characters related to knife.
What are the components of 刨?
刨 is composed of: 包 (phonetic), 刂 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰包刂 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 刨?
Common words with 刨 include: 刨根问底 (páo gēn wèn dǐ, "to dig up roots and inquire at the base (idiom)"); 刨冰 (bào bīng, "shaved or crushed ice dessert or beverage"); 刨子 (bào zi, "plane"); 刨床 (bào chuáng, "planer"); 刨根儿 (páo gēn r, "erhua variant of 刨根[pao2 gen1]"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 刨 (bào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bào: 胞 (placenta), 饱 (full), 包 (to cover), 薄 (thin), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 刨 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 刨 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 刨 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

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.