币 (bì): money, coins, currency

币 (bì) is a Chinese character meaning “money.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 丿 (structural) and 巾 (structural). It ranks #1184 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 币 bills written on silk 巾. Its radical form 巾 (cloth) appears in many related characters such as 师 (shī, teacher), 帮 (bāng, to help), 常 (cháng, always).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. money
  2. coins
  3. currency

Etymology & Origin

币

ideographicBills written on silk 巾

Decomposition: ⿻丿巾 (layout: overlay)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 币

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
货币nounhuò bìcurrency6
人民币nounrén mín bìRenminbi, the official currency of the PRC (currency codes: RMB or CNY)5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
硬币nounyìng bìcoin
金币nounjīn bìgold coin
银币nounyín bìsilver coin
纸币nounzhǐ bìbank notes
假币nounjiǎ bìcounterfeit money
钱币nounqián bìmoney (esp. coins)
外币nounwài bìforeign currency
铸币verbzhù bìcoin
国际货币基金组织proper-nounguó jì huò bì jī jīn zǔ zhīInternational Monetary Fund (IMF)
纪念币nounjì niàn bìcommemorative coin
币值nounbì zhívalue of a currency
港币noungǎng bìHong Kong currency
非同质化代币fēi tóng zhì huà dài bìnon-fungible token (NFT)
人民币元rén mín bì yuánrenminbi yuan (RMB), PRC currency unit
国际货币基金guó jì huò bì jī jīnInternational Monetary Fund (IMF)
68
Total compounds
6
As first character
75
As last character
19
As middle character

币 appears in 68 compound words: 6 as the first character, 75 as the last, and 19 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 币 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

铸zhù
0.7019,050 co-occurrences
货huò
0.62019,953 co-occurrences
纸zhǐ
0.6076,356 co-occurrences
钱qián
0.5695,704 co-occurrences
硬yìng
0.53615,013 co-occurrences
兑duì
0.518846 co-occurrences
银yín
0.5044,962 co-occurrences
元yuán
0.49218,404 co-occurrences
民mín
0.45829,106 co-occurrences
贬biǎn
0.447406 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

卑辞厚币bēi cí hòu bìHSK 7+

humble expression for generous donation

phrase
本位货币běnwèi huòbìHSK 5+

local currency; standard currency

noun
货币市场huòbì shìchǎngHSK 5+

money market

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了币字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le bì zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "coin" in the dictionary.

Am730Feb 2026

Bitcoin|比特币未止跌 跌至6.3万美元水平

B i t c o i n bǐ tè bì wèi zhǐ diē diē zhì 6 . 3 wàn měi yuán shuǐ píng

Bitcoin has not stopped falling to the $63,000 level

三立新聞網Feb 2026

...撼!挖3563克拉紫星彩宝 飙126亿台币

. . . hàn ! wā 3 5 6 3 kè lā zǐ xīng cǎi bǎo biāo 1 2 6 yì tái bì

... Shake! Digging 3,563 carats of purple star colored treasures soared to NT$12.6 billion

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

美关税新变局 台币走势将以盘待变

měi guān shuì xīn biàn jú tái bì zǒu shì jiāng yǐ pán dài biàn

New changes in US tariffs The trend of the Taiwan dollar will be waiting for changes

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

美元还能强多久?新台币盘整静待联准会“华许政策”

měi yuán hái néng qiáng duō jiǔ ? xīn tái bì pán zhěng jìng dài lián zhǔn huì huá xǔ zhèng cè

How long can the dollar be strong? The consolidation of the New Taiwan dollar awaits the Federal Reserve's "Huaxu policy"

工商時報Feb 2026

比特币还能买?《富爸爸.穷爸爸》作者逆风加码 ...

bǐ tè bì hái néng mǎi ? fù bà bà . qióng bà bà zuò zhě nì fēng jiā mǎ . . .

Can Bitcoin still be bought? "Rich Dad. The author of "Poor Dad" is against the wind...

Tatoeba

我需要先放一枚硬币吗?

Wǒ xūyào xiān fàng yī méi yìngbì ma?

Do I need to put a coin in first?

Tatoeba

台湾的货币是什么 ?

Táiwān de huòbì shì shénme?

What is the currency of Taiwan?

Tatoeba

国际货币基金组织不考虑再借款给该国。

Guójì Huòbì Jījīn Zǔzhī bù kǎolǜ zài jièkuǎn gěi gāiguó.

The IMF ruled out any new loans to that country.

Tatoeba

钱币的价值取决于所使用的金属的重量。

Qiánbì de jiàzhí qǔjué yú suǒ shǐyòng de jīnshǔ de zhòngliàng.

The value of a coin depends on the weight of the metal used.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced bì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 币 (bì) mean in Chinese?
币 (bì) primarily means "money." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1184 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 币 have?
币 is written with 4 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 币?
The radical associated with 币 is 巾 (cloth). This radical appears in many characters related to cloth.
What are the components of 币?
币 is composed of: 丿 (structural), 巾 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿻丿巾 with a overlay layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 币?
Common words with 币 include: 硬币 (yìng bì, "coin"); 金币 (jīn bì, "gold coin"); 货币 (huò bì, "currency"); 银币 (yín bì, "silver coin"); 纸币 (zhǐ bì, "bank notes"). There are over 68 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 币 (bì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bì: 比 (Belgium), 必 (certainly), 笔 (writing brush), 避 (to avoid), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 币 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 币 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 币 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.