煲 (bāo): to cook slowly over a low flame, pot, saucepan

煲 (bāo) is a Chinese character meaning “to cook slowly over a low flame.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 保 (phonetic) and 火 (semantic). It ranks #2999 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 煲 fire. Its radical form 火 (fire) appears in many related characters such as 火 (huǒ, fire), 灯 (dēng, lamp, light), 烟 (yān, smoke).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 火 fire13 strokesFrequency #2999保 phonetic火 semantic

Definitions

  1. to cook slowly over a low flame
  2. pot
  3. saucepan

Etymology & Origin

煲

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿱保火 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:保phonetic火semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
电饭煲diàn fàn bāorice cooker
海陆煲hǎi lù bāosea and land hotpot (Jiangsu specialty)
煲电话粥bāo diàn huà zhōuto talk endlessly on the phone
煲汤bāo tāngto simmer
箍煲gū bāoto heal the breach (Cantonese)
5
Total compounds
40
As first character
60
As last character
0
As middle character

煲 appears in 5 compound words: 40 as the first character, 60 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 煲 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

茶chá
0.489762 co-occurrences
粥zhōu
0.485114 co-occurrences
仔zǐ
0.466684 co-occurrences
枯kū
0.440108 co-occurrences
煮zhǔ
0.429126 co-occurrences
饭fàn
0.418114 co-occurrences
肉ròu
0.403336 co-occurrences
菜cài
0.402306 co-occurrences
蟹xiè
0.39472 co-occurrences
菇gū
0.39348 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

煲电话粥bāo diànhuàzhōuHSK 7+

to talk for hours on the telephone

verb

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

消防员迅速赶到，扑灭了熊熊大煲。

xiāo fáng yuán xùn sù gǎn dào , pū miè le xióng xióng dà bāo .

Firefighters arrived quickly and extinguished the raging blaze.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

护脊|煲剧最伤腰颈!医生揭久坐陷阱 打机反减腰痛...

hù jǐ bāo jù zuì shāng yāo jǐng ! yī shēng jiē jiǔ zuò xiàn jǐng dǎ jī fǎn jiǎn yāo tòng . . .

Spine protection|Watching dramas hurts the waist and neck the most! Doctors reveal the trap of sedentary playing video games to reduce back pain...

Character Family

火 Radical Family — Characters sharing the fire radical

焙bèi灿càn炒chǎo炊chuī灯dēng炖dùn烦fán耿gěng焊hàn烘hōng

Related Characters

火huǒ灯dēng烟yān烦fán炼liàn烧shāo燃rán灰huī灾zāi烂làn

Homophones — Characters pronounced bāo

褒bāo包bāo胞bāo薄báo宝bǎo饱bǎo保bǎo报bào抱bào暴bào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 煲 (bāo) mean in Chinese?
煲 (bāo) primarily means "to cook slowly over a low flame." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2999 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 煲 and 第?
煲 (bāo) and 第 (dì) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 煲 (low) vs 第 (high).
How many strokes does 煲 have?
煲 is written with 13 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 煲?
The radical associated with 煲 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 煲?
煲 is composed of: 保 (phonetic), 火 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱保火 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 煲?
Common words with 煲 include: 电饭煲 (diàn fàn bāo, "rice cooker"); 海陆煲 (hǎi lù bāo, "sea and land hotpot (Jiangsu specialty)"); 煲电话粥 (bāo diàn huà zhōu, "to talk endlessly on the phone"); 煲汤 (bāo tāng, "to simmer"); 箍煲 (gū bāo, "to heal the breach (Cantonese)"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 煲 (bāo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bāo: 褒 (to praise), 包 (to cover), 胞 (placenta), 薄 (thin), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 煲 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 煲 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 煲 with real-time feedback

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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.