(): arm

() is a Chinese character meaning “arm.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #1674 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, flesh. Its radical form (meat) appears in many related characters such as (ròu, meat), (néng, can), (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. arm

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticflesh

Decomposition: ⿱辟⺼ (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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
nounshǒu bìarm6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shuāng bìarms
bì bǎngarm
bì wāncrook of the arm
qián bìforearm
gē beiarm
shī zhī jiāo bìto miss narrowly
zuǒ bǎng yòu bì(idiom) trusted assistant
bì zhāngarmband
bì lìarm strength
cháng bì yuángibbon
bǎng bìupper arm
shàng bìupper arm
xuán bìcantilever
zhèn bì yī hū(idiom) to issue a call for action
zhù yī bì zhī lìto lend a helping hand (idiom)
47
Total compounds
17
As first character
55
As last character
28
As middle character

appears in 47 compound words: 17 as the first character, 55 as the last, and 28 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.

bǎng
0.5272,448 co-occurrences
shǒu
0.52239,558 co-occurrences
diào
0.4952,502 co-occurrences
yòu
0.48410,914 co-occurrences
xiè
0.4804,596 co-occurrences
zuǒ
0.4729,996 co-occurrences
xuán
0.4681,770 co-occurrences
tuǐ
0.4641,914 co-occurrences
rǎng
0.459336 co-occurrences
wàn
0.442756 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

jiāobìshīzhīHSK 6+

to narrowly miss a golden opportunity (to meet someone etc.)

phrase
使rúbìshǐzhǐHSK 6+

to control or handle someone or something effectively and easily; to be in perfect command of

phrase
sāntóuliùbìHSK 6+

(having) superhuman powers

phrase
shīzhījiāobìHSK 6+

to narrowly miss a golden opportunity (to meet someone, etc.)

phrase
zhènbìyīhūHSK 7+

to raise one's arm and cry out to rally people

phrase
tángbìdāngchēHSK 6+

to overrate oneself and attempt something impossible

phrase
luō bì xuān quánHSK 7+

lit. to push up one's sleeves and bare one's fists; to be eager to get started

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

她张开双,热情地拥抱了久别的朋友。

Tā zhāngkāi shuāng bì, rèqíng de yōngbào le jiǔbié de péngyou.

She opened her arms wide and warmly hugged her long-lost friend.

Am730Mar 2026

非经期出血竟然系癌症 洗肾妇靠机械手术顺利完成分期治疗

fēi jīng qī chū xiě jìng rán xì ái zhèng xǐ shèn fù kào jī xiè bì shǒu shù shùn lì wán chéng fēn qī zhì liáo

Bleeding Outside the Menstrual Cycle Turns Out to Be Cancer; Dialysis Patient Successfully Completes Staging Treatment via Robotic Surgery

東森新聞Mar 2026

新/士林小货车吊未收勾电缆 火花四射酿20户停电

xīn shì lín xiǎo huò chē diào bì wèi shōu gōu diàn lǎn huǒ huā sì shè niàng 2 0 hù tíng diàn

New/Shilin: Small Truck's Crane Hook Snags Cable; Sparks Fly, Causing Power Outage for 20 Households

UnwireMar 2026

... Robot Phone 惊艳全场 机械镜头实测稳定度超越传统稳定器

. . . R o b o t P h o n e jīng yàn quán chǎng jī xiè bì jìng tóu shí cè wěn dìng dù chāo yuè chuán tǒng wěn dìng qì

... Robot Phone stunned the audience The measured stability of the robotic arm lens surpasses that of traditional stabilizers

NewsFeb 2026

机场六旬男工操作吊时从货板堕下 半昏迷送院

jī chǎng liù xún nán gōng cāo zuò diào bì shí cóng huò bǎn duò xià bàn hūn mí sòng yuàn

A male worker in his sixties at the airport fell from a cargo board while operating a boom and was sent to the hospital in a semi-unconscious manner

NewsFeb 2026

新春走军营 | 风雪66载 红绳映照巡边路

xīn chūn zǒu jūn yíng fēng xuě zài hóng bì shéng yìng zhào xún biān lù

New Year's walk to the barracks | 66 years of wind and snow, the red arm rope reflects the patrol road

Tatoeba

他垂下手环绕住她然后亲吻。

Tā chuíxià shǒubì huánrào zhù tā ránhòu qīnwěn.

He slid his arms around her and kissed her.

Tatoeba

汤姆用叉子戳我的手

Tāngmǔ yòng chāzi chuō wǒ de shǒubì.

Tom stuck a fork in my arm.

Tatoeba

放开我的手!我不能忍受有人碰我。

Fàngkāi wǒ de shǒubì! Wǒ bù néng rěnshòu yǒurén pèng wǒ.

Let go of my arm! I can't stand people touching me.

Tatoeba

他伸长了手为了能拿到书。

Tā shēncháng le shǒubì wèile néng ná dào shū.

He stretched out his arm to take the book.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 臂 (bì) mean in Chinese?
臂 (bì) primarily means "arm." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1674 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 臂 and 劈?
臂 (bì) and 劈 (pī) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 肉 vs 刂 (same 辟 component).
How many strokes does 臂 have?
臂 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 臂?
The radical associated with 臂 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 臂?
臂 is composed of: 辟 (phonetic), ⺼ (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱辟⺼ with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 臂?
Common words with 臂 include: 手臂 (shǒu bì, "arm"); 双臂 (shuāng bì, "arms"); 臂膀 (bì bǎng, "arm"); 臂弯 (bì wān, "crook of the arm"); 前臂 (qián bì, "forearm"). There are over 47 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 臂 (bì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bì: 壁 (wall), 避 (to avoid), 鼻 (nose), 比 (Belgium), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 臂 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 臂 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.