痹 (bì): paralysis, numbness

痹 (bì) is a Chinese character meaning “paralysis.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 疒 (semantic) and 畀 (phonetic). It ranks #2901 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 痹 sickness. Its radical form 疒 (illness) appears in many related characters such as 医 (yī, medicine), 病 (bìng, illness), 疼 (téng, ache).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 疒 illness13 strokesFrequency #2901疒 semantic畀 phonetic

Definitions

  1. paralysis
  2. numbness

Etymology & Origin

痹

pictophoneticsickness

Decomposition: ⿸疒畀 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Components:疒semantic畀phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
麻痹má bìparalysis
小儿麻痹症xiǎo ér má bì zhèngpoliomyelitis
小儿麻痹病毒xiǎo ér má bì bìng dúpoliovirus
麻痹大意má bì dà yìunwary
小儿麻痹xiǎo ér má bìpolio (poliomyelitis)
脑性麻痹nǎo xìng má bìcerebral palsy
小儿痲痹xiǎo ér má bìvariant of 小兒麻痺|小儿麻痹
脑性痲痹nǎo xìng má bìvariant of 腦性麻痺|脑性麻痹
痹证bì zhènglocalized pain disorder (in Chinese medicine)
震颤麻痹zhèn chàn má bìpalsy
痲痹má bìvariant of 麻痺|麻痹[ma2 bi4]
11
Total compounds
9
As first character
64
As last character
27
As middle character

痹 appears in 11 compound words: 9 as the first character, 64 as the last, and 27 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 痹 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

麻má
0.6544,146 co-occurrences
颤chàn
0.49254 co-occurrences
肌jī
0.479294 co-occurrences
症zhèng
0.465606 co-occurrences
痛tòng
0.444330 co-occurrences
湿shī
0.439144 co-occurrences
脏zāng
0.43596 co-occurrences
懈xiè
0.42536 co-occurrences
喉hóu
0.42190 co-occurrences
寒hán
0.393120 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

麻痹大意mábìdàyìHSK 7+

to lower one's guard; to be careless and unconcerned

phrase
脑性麻痹nǎo xìng má bìHSK 7+

cerebral palsy; spasticity

phrase
震颤麻痹zhèn chàn má bìHSK 7+

palsy; trembling paralysis; used for Parkinson's disease 帕金森病[Pa4 jin1 sen1 bing4]

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个痹字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

zhè gě bì zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .

The character "痹" had different meanings in ancient Chinese.

99 健康网Apr 2026

什么情况会得渐冻症?病毒感染如小儿麻痹病毒的类比

shén má qíng kuàng huì dé jiān dòng zhèng ? bìng dú gǎn rǎn rú xiǎo ér má bì bìng dú de lèi bǐ

Character Family

疒 Radical Family — Characters sharing the illness radical

癌ái疤bā病bìng痴chī疵cī瘩dá疯fēng疙gē痕hén痪huàn

Related Characters

医yī病bìng疼téng痛tòng疗liáo疯fēng瘦shòu疾jí症zhèng疫yì

Homophones — Characters pronounced bì

鼻bí比bǐ彼bǐ笔bǐ币bì必bì毕bì闭bì壁bì避bì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 痹 (bì) mean in Chinese?
痹 (bì) primarily means "paralysis." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2901 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 痹 have?
痹 is written with 13 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 痹?
The radical associated with 痹 is 疒 (illness). This radical appears in many characters related to illness.
What are the components of 痹?
痹 is composed of: 疒 (semantic), 畀 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸疒畀 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 痹?
Common words with 痹 include: 麻痹 (má bì, "paralysis"); 小儿麻痹症 (xiǎo ér má bì zhèng, "poliomyelitis"); 小儿麻痹病毒 (xiǎo ér má bì bìng dú, "poliovirus"); 麻痹大意 (má bì dà yì, "unwary"); 小儿麻痹 (xiǎo ér má bì, "polio (poliomyelitis)"). There are over 11 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 痹 (bì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bì: 鼻 (nose), 比 (Belgium), 彼 (that), 笔 (writing brush), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 痹 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 痹 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.