(bèi): to dry over a fire

(bèi) is a Chinese character meaning “to dry over a fire.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #3073 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, fire. Its radical form (fire) appears in many related characters such as (huǒ, fire), (yān, smoke), (shāo, to burn, to cook).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to dry over a fire

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿰火咅 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
hōng bèito cure by drying over a fire (tea, meat etc)
zhōng bèimedium roast (coffee)
bèi guǒvariant of 貝果|贝果[bei4 guo3]
bèi gānto dry over a fire
shēn bèidark roast (coffee)
hōng bèi shībaker
bèi shāoto roast
bèi fěnbaking powder
hōng bèi diànbakery
hōng bèi jīhomepage (loanword) (humorous)
qiǎn bèilight roast (coffee)
bèi kǎoto bake
tàn bèicharcoal-roasted
bèi jiānto dry and roast over a low fire (tea, chestnuts, seaweed etc)
14
Total compounds
43
As first character
36
As last character
21
As middle character

appears in 14 compound words: 43 as the first character, 36 as the last, and 21 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.

hōng
0.8858,766 co-occurrences
kǎo
0.479276 co-occurrences
fāng
0.469720 co-occurrences
fēi
0.463408 co-occurrences
shāo
0.458384 co-occurrences
0.451384 co-occurrences
gāo
0.430198 co-occurrences
jiào
0.417102 co-occurrences
jiān
0.41772 co-occurrences
róu
0.40736 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

冬天里,一家人围坐在炉旁取暖聊天。

dōng tiān lǐ , yī jiā rén wéi zuò zài lú bèi páng qǔ nuǎn liáo tiān .

In winter, the family gathers around the stove to keep warm and chat.

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 焙 (bèi) mean in Chinese?
焙 (bèi) primarily means "to dry over a fire." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3073 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 焙 and 湿?
焙 (bèi) and 湿 (shī) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 焙 (dry) vs 湿 (wet).
How many strokes does 焙 have?
焙 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 焙?
The radical associated with 焙 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 焙?
焙 is composed of: 火 (semantic), 咅 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰火咅 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 焙?
Common words with 焙 include: 烘焙 (hōng bèi, "to cure by drying over a fire (tea, meat etc)"); 中焙 (zhōng bèi, "medium roast (coffee)"); 焙果 (bèi guǒ, "variant of 貝果|贝果[bei4 guo3]"); 焙干 (bèi gān, "to dry over a fire"); 深焙 (shēn bèi, "dark roast (coffee)"). There are over 14 compound words containing this character.
Is 焙 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 焙 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.