笨 (bèn): stupid, foolish, silly

笨 (bèn) is a Chinese character meaning “stupid.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of ⺮ (semantic) and 本 (phonetic). It ranks #2256 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 笨 bamboo. Its radical form 竹 (bamboo) appears in many related characters such as 笑 (xiào, to laugh), 第 (dì, (prefix indicating ordinal number, as in 第六 "sixth")), 等 (děng, to wait for).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. stupid
  2. foolish
  3. silly

Etymology & Origin

笨

pictophoneticbamboo

Decomposition: ⿱⺮本 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
笨蛋nounbèn dàn(mild insult) fool
笨拙adjectivebèn zhuōclumsy
愚笨adjectiveyú bènstupid
笨重adjectivebèn zhòngheavy
蠢笨adjectivechǔn bènstupid
呆笨adjectivedāi bèndimwitted
粗笨adjectivecū bènawkward
拙笨adjectivezhuō bènclumsy
笨到家了bèn dào jiā leextremely stupid
大笨象noundà bèn xiàng(slang) elephant
笨鸟先飞phrasebèn niǎo xiān fēilit. the clumsy bird flies early (idiom)
笨人nounbèn rénfool
大笨鸟dà bèn niǎo(bird species of China) Malayan night heron (Gorsachius melanolophus)
笨头笨脑phrasebèn tóu bèn nǎo(idiom) stupid
笨手笨脚phrasebèn shǒu bèn jiǎoclumsy
26
Total compounds
62
As first character
27
As last character
12
As middle character

笨 appears in 26 compound words: 62 as the first character, 27 as the last, and 12 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 笨 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

拙zhuō
0.7722,489 co-occurrences
蛋dàn
0.5812,867 co-occurrences
愚yú
0.540512 co-occurrences
珍zhēn
0.429460 co-occurrences
蠢chǔn
0.42568 co-occurrences
呆dāi
0.42482 co-occurrences
傻shǎ
0.40976 co-occurrences
孩hái
0.406524 co-occurrences
耍shuǎ
0.38238 co-occurrences
港gǎng
0.3801,210 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

笨口拙舌bènkǒuzhuōshéHSK 7+

awkward in speech; inarticulate

phrase
笨鸟先飞bènniǎoxiānfēiHSK 4+

the slow need to start early for fear of falling behind

phrase
笨手笨脚bènshǒubènjiǎoHSK 4+

clumsy; all thumbs

phrase
笨头笨脑bèntóubènnǎoHSK 4+

stupid; slow-witted; muddleheaded; clumsy; cumbersome

phrase
笨嘴拙舌bènzuǐzhuōshéHSK 7+

synonym of 笨口拙舌 (bènkǒuzhuōshé, “awkward in speech; inarticulate”)

phrase
心拙口笨xīn zhuō kǒu bènHSK 7+

dull-witted and tongue-tied

phrase
笨嘴拙腮bèn zuǐ zhuō sāiHSK 7+

see 笨嘴拙舌

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

笨字在日常生活中使用频率中等。

bèn zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ zhōng děng .

The word "笨" is used moderately frequently in daily life.

爱范儿Aug 2026

在全行业都在为纯虚拟的 AI 生成狂热时,苹果反倒花了大量“笨功夫”打磨实体质感。

zài quán háng yè dōu zài wéi chún xū nǐ de A I shēng chéng kuáng rè shí , píng guǒ fǎn dǎo huā le dà liàng bèn gōng fū dǎ mó shí tǐ zhì gǎn .

While the entire industry is caught up in the frenzy over purely virtual AI-generated content, Apple has instead put in a lot of “hard work” to refine the tactile quality of its physical products.

IT之家Aug 2026

每场电影散场时,笨笨还会带来观影彩蛋,献舞一曲。

měi chǎng diàn yǐng sàn chǎng shí , bèn bèn hái huì dài lái guàn yǐng cǎi dàn , xiàn wǔ yī qū .

At the end of every movie, Benben also treats the audience to a special surprise—a dance performance.

少数派Aug 2026

不过他那笨拙的、略显固执的宅男性格,偶尔还是会在人际交往上,给他带去小麻烦。

bù guò tā nà bèn zhuō de , lüè xiǎn gù zhí de zhái nán xìng gé , ǒu ěr hái shì huì zài rén jì jiāo wǎng shàng , gěi tā dài qù xiǎo má fán .

However, his awkward, somewhat stubborn, and reclusive personality occasionally causes him minor problems in his interpersonal relationships.

Orientaldaily MyApr 2026

笨珍警方捣破水路偷渡人蛇集团 捕涉吸毒5蛇...

bèn zhēn jǐng fāng dǎo pò shuǐ lù tōu dù rén shé jí tuán bǔ shè xī dú 5 shé . . .

Police in Bentong busted a human trafficking ring operating via waterways and arrested five traffickers suspected of drug use...

中時新聞網Feb 2026

古曜〈笨蛋〉惊爆隐藏一段无私爱情故事“好好爱自己...

gǔ 曜 bèn dàn jīng bào yǐn zàng yī duàn wú sī ài qíng gù shì hǎo hǎo ài zì jǐ . . .

Gu Yao's "Fool" shocked and hid a selfless love story: "Love yourself...

Tatoeba

愚笨的头脑使腿受苦。

Yúbèn de tóunǎo shǐ tuǐ shòukǔ.

A foolish head makes for weary feet.

Tatoeba

这个箱子太笨重了无法携带。

Zhège xiāngzi tài bènzhòng le wúfǎ xiédài.

This box is too bulky to carry.

Tatoeba

她过去参加派对,总是战战兢兢笨手笨脚的。

Tā guòqù cānjiā pàiduì, zǒngshì zhànzhànjīngjīng bènshǒubènjiǎo de.

She is always afraid of being a klutz when going to parties.

Tatoeba

汤姆绝不是笨。他只是懒而已。

Tāngmǔ juébù shì bèn. tā zhǐshì lǎn éryǐ.

Tom's definitely not stupid. He's just lazy.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the ⺮ (bamboo) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced bèn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 笨 (bèn) mean in Chinese?
笨 (bèn) primarily means "stupid." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #2256 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 笨 have?
笨 is written with 11 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 笨?
The radical associated with 笨 is 竹 (bamboo). This radical appears in many characters related to bamboo.
What are the components of 笨?
笨 is composed of: ⺮ (semantic), 本 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱⺮本 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 笨?
Common words with 笨 include: 笨蛋 (bèn dàn, "(mild insult) fool"); 笨拙 (bèn zhuō, "clumsy"); 愚笨 (yú bèn, "stupid"); 笨重 (bèn zhòng, "heavy"); 蠢笨 (chǔn bèn, "stupid"). There are over 26 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 笨 (bèn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bèn: 本 ((bound form) root), 奔 (to hurry). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 笨 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 笨 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 笨 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.