(bào): to explode, to quick-fry

(bào) is a Chinese character meaning “to explode, to quick-fry.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1237 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a violent 暴 flame 火; 暴 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form (fire) appears in many related characters such as (huǒ, fire), (dēng, lamp, light), (yān, smoke).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to explode, to quick-fry

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA violent 暴 flame 火; 暴 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰火暴 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbbào zhàexplosion6
verbbào fāto break out6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yǐn bàoto ignite
bào mǐ huāpuffed rice
bào pòto blow up
huǒ bàofiery (temper)
bào zhà wùexplosive (material)
bào zhà xìngexplosive
bào lièto rupture
qǐ bàoto explode
bào chūto burst out
bào zhúfirecracker
bào fā lìexplosive power (in athletics, music, dance etc)
bào mǎnfilled to capacity (of theater, stadium, gymnasium etc)
hé bào zhànuclear explosion
bào zhà lìexplosive force
yì bàoexplosive
99
Total compounds
53
As first character
21
As last character
26
As middle character

appears in 99 compound words: 53 as the first character, 21 as the last, and 26 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

zhà
0.769201,537 co-occurrences
0.567186,354 co-occurrences
liè
0.46113,440 co-occurrences
yǐn
0.44841,867 co-occurrences
0.4438,112 co-occurrences
0.43122,536 co-occurrences
dàn
0.42810,614 co-occurrences
jìn
0.4261,836 co-occurrences
wán
0.4186,486 co-occurrences
zhēng
0.41214,640 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

Gōngbào jīdīngHSK 7+

alternative form of 宮保雞丁 /宫保鸡丁 (Gōngbǎo jīdīng)

noun
huǒ shān bào fāHSK 6+

volcanic eruption

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这条新闻出后,公司的股价在短时间内大幅下跌。

Zhè tiáo xīnwén bào chū hòu, gōngsī de gǔjià zài duǎn shíjiān nèi dàfú xiàdiē.

After this news broke, the company's stock price dropped sharply in a short time.

百度新闻Feb 2026

订单了!90后男生春节可赚16万元

dìng dān bào le ! 9 0 hòu nán shēng chūn jié kě zhuàn 1 6 wàn yuán

The order is exploding! Post-90s boys can earn 160,000 yuan during the Spring Festival

百度新闻Feb 2026

一环内禁燃!云岩区春节期间烟花竹禁限放区域、时间..

yī huán nèi jīn rán ! yún yán qū chūn jié qī jiān yān huā bào zhú jīn xiàn fàng qū yù , shí jiān . .

No combustion in the first ring! During the Spring Festival in Yunyan District, fireworks and firecrackers are prohibited and restricted:

百度新闻Feb 2026

阿福上春晚后火登顶AppStore:这4个宝藏用..

ā fú shǎng chūn wǎn hòu bào huǒ dēng dǐng zhè gě bǎo zàng yòng . .

Afu on the Spring Festival Gala after the explosion of fire topped the AppStore: these 4 treasures with...

百度新闻Feb 2026

春晚引机器人热潮!上百股或受益,节前逾20亿抢...

chūn wǎn yǐn bào jī qì rén rè cháo ! shǎng bǎi gǔ huò shòu yì , jié qián yú yì qiāng . . .

Spring Festival Gala Sparks Robot Craze! Hundreds of Stocks May Benefit, Over 2 Billion Snapped Up Before the Holiday...

百度新闻Feb 2026

90后男生春节上门喂猫 前后20多天 赚16万 ..

hòu nán shēng chūn jié shǎng mén wéi māo qián hòu duō tiān bào zhuàn mò . .

A post-90s guy made a killing over the Spring Festival by offering cat-feeding services at clients' homes. In just over 20 days, he raked in 160,000 yuan.

Tatoeba

炸的原因是什么?

Bàozhà de yuányīn shì shénme?

What was the cause of the explosion?

Tatoeba

讨厌!轮胎了!

Tǎoyàn! lúntāi bào le!

Shit! I've got a flat.

Tatoeba

一连串的炸使实验室成为废墟。

Yìliánchuàn de bàozhà shǐ shíyànshì chéngwéi fèixū.

A series of blasts reduced the laboratory to ruins.

Tatoeba

化学工厂一着火就炸了。

Huàxué gōngchǎng yī zháohuǒ jiù bàozhà le.

Once the chemical plant caught fire, it exploded.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced bào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 爆 (bào) mean in Chinese?
爆 (bào) primarily means "to explode, to quick-fry." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1237 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 爆 have?
爆 is written with 19 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 爆?
The radical associated with 爆 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 爆?
爆 is composed of: 火 (structural), 暴 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰火暴 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 爆?
Common words with 爆 include: 爆炸 (bào zhà, "explosion"); 爆发 (bào fā, "to break out"); 引爆 (yǐn bào, "to ignite"); 爆米花 (bào mǐ huā, "puffed rice"); 爆破 (bào pò, "to blow up"). There are over 99 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 爆 (bào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bào: 包 (to cover), 胞 (placenta), 煲 (to cook slowly over a low flame), 薄 (thin), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 爆 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 爆 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.