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).
Definitions
- to cook slowly over a low flame
- pot
- saucepan
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
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
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 电饭煲noun | diàn fàn bāo | electric rice cooker |
| 海陆煲 | hǎi lù bāo | Sea and Land Casserole (Zhejiang dish of chicken and clams simmered in herbal broth) |
| 煲电话粥verb | bāo diàn huà zhōu | to talk endlessly on the phone |
| 煲饭 | bāo fàn | to cook rice |
| 煲汤verb | bāo tāng | to make soup |
| 箍煲verb | gū bāo | (originally Cantonese) to patch things up with one's spouse or lover |
煲 appears in 6 compound words: 50 as the first character, 50 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.
Idioms & Chengyu (1)
Example Sentences
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.
定时熄火 定时就不用说了，煲汤炖菜定时自动关火，无需专人看管，非常非常方便。
dìng shí xī huǒ dìng shí jiù bù yòng shuō le , bāo tāng dùn cài dìng shí zì dòng guān huǒ , wú xū zhuān rén kàn guǎn , fēi cháng fēi cháng fāng biàn .
Timer Shut-Off: The timer feature speaks for itself—it automatically turns off the heat when you’re simmering soup or stewing vegetables, so you don’t need to keep an eye on it, which is extremely convenient.
密闭式电器，像电饭煲、压力锅、慢炖锅和空气炸锅这类也是相对散热较少的烹饪工具。
mì bì shì diàn qì , xiàng diàn fàn bāo , yā lì guō , màn dùn guō hé kōng qì zhà guō zhè lèi yě shì xiāng duì sàn rè jiào shǎo de pēng rèn gōng jù .
Sealed appliances, such as rice cookers, pressure cookers, slow cookers, and air fryers, are also cooking appliances that generate relatively little heat.
...列顺德篇(三):容桂美食必吃推荐|打边炉煲仔饭
. . . liè shùn dé piān ( sān ) : róng guì měi shí bì chī tuī jiàn dǎ biān lú bāo zǐ fàn
...Shunde Series (Part 3): Must-Try Dishes in Ronggui | Hot Pot and Clay Pot Rice
Character Family
Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 火 (fire) component
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 煲 (bāo) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 煲 and 第?
How many strokes does 煲 have?
What is the radical of 煲?
What are the components of 煲?
What are common words containing 煲?
What characters sound the same as 煲 (bāo)?
Is 煲 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 煲 with real-time feedback
Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.