蔽 (bì): to cover, to hide

蔽 (bì) is a Chinese character meaning “to cover, to hide.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (semantic) and 敝 (phonetic). It ranks #2084 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 蔽 grass. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 花 (huā, flower), 茶 (chá, tea), 菜 (cài, vegetable, dish).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to cover, to hide

Etymology & Origin

蔽

pictophoneticgrass

Decomposition: ⿱艹敝 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
隐蔽verbyǐn bìto conceal
蒙蔽verbméng bìto deceive
屏蔽verbpíng bìto screen
遮蔽verbzhē bìto cover
掩蔽verbyǎn bìshelter
遮天蔽日phrasezhē tiān bì rìlit. hiding the sky and covering the earth (idiom)
衣不蔽体yī bù bì tǐlit. clothes not covering the body (idiom)
一言以蔽之phraseyī yán yǐ bì zhīone word says it all (idiom, from Analects)
蔽身处bì shēn chùshelter
子网屏蔽码zǐ wǎng píng bì mǎsubnet mask (computing)
后掩蔽hòu yǎn bìbackward masking
核屏蔽hé píng bìnuclear shielding
障蔽verbzhàng bìto obstruct
蔽芾adjectivebì fèiluxuriant
壅蔽verbyōng bì(literary) to cover
17
Total compounds
12
As first character
59
As last character
29
As middle character

蔽 appears in 17 compound words: 12 as the first character, 59 as the last, and 29 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 蔽 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

遮zhē
0.6954,332 co-occurrences
屏píng
0.6795,810 co-occurrences
隐yǐn
0.6012,773 co-occurrences
掩yǎn
0.5461,042 co-occurrences
荫yìn
0.447144 co-occurrences
蒙méng
0.389780 co-occurrences
膝xī
0.38476 co-occurrences
凋diāo
0.38130 co-occurrences
门mén
0.374812 co-occurrences
绞jiǎo
0.36426 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

衣不蔽体yī bù bì tǐHSK 7+

lit. clothes not covering the body (idiom); fig. poverty-stricken

phrase
遮天蔽日zhētiānbìrìHSK 7+

extremely strong and vast

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

大树遮蔽了阳光,地上很凉快。

Dà shù zhēbì le yángguāng, dìshang hěn liángkuai.

The big tree blocks the sunlight; it's very cool on the ground.

爱范儿Aug 2026

隐蔽的诱导已经是过去时了,现在广告正在发起全面的入侵,竭泽残存的注意力。

yǐn bì de yòu dǎo yǐ jīng shì guò qù shí le , xiàn zài guǎng gào zhèng zài fā qǐ quán miàn de rù qīn , jié zé cán cún de zhù yì lì .

Subtle persuasion is a thing of the past; now, advertising is launching an all-out assault, draining every last bit of attention.

少数派Aug 2026

由于不同网站采用的广告投放技术各不相同,因此广告拦截器无法保证屏蔽所有广告。

yóu yú bù tóng wǎng zhàn cǎi yòng de guǎng gào tóu fàng jì shù gè bù xiāng tóng , yīn cǐ guǎng gào lán jié qì wú fǎ bǎo zhèng bǐng bì suǒ yǒu guǎng gào .

Because different websites use different ad-serving technologies, ad blockers cannot guarantee that they will block all ads.

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

台风“白海豚”过境,除了大风大雨,另一场更隐蔽的“袭击”正在悄然发生。

tái fēng bái hǎi tún guò jìng , chú le dà fēng dà yǔ , lìng yī chǎng gēng yǐn bì de xí jī zhèng zài qiǎo rán fā shēng .

As Typhoon "White Dolphin" passes through, aside from strong winds and heavy rain, another, more subtle "attack" is quietly unfolding.

SmzdmApr 2026

...arframe 第186周卡尔驻军任务隐蔽破坏流程一览

. . . a r f r a m e dì 1 8 6 zhōu kǎ ěr zhù jūn rèn wù yǐn bì pò huài liú chéng yī lǎn

...arframe: Week 186 – A Guide to Covert Sabotage in the Karl Garrison Mission

NewtalkMar 2026

...人机炸俄最大石油出口港! 4油槽起火浓烟蔽天 防空系统、雷达也挨轰

. . . rén jī zhà é zuì dà shí yóu chū kǒu gǎng ! 4 yóu cáo qǐ huǒ nóng yān bì tiān fáng kōng xì tǒng , léi dá yě āi hōng

...Drones strike Russia's largest oil export terminal! Four oil tanks are on fire, with thick smoke blanketing the sky; air defense systems and radar installations have also been hit

Tatoeba

不要被外貌蒙蔽了。

Bù yào bèi wàimào méngbì le.

Don't be fooled by appearances.

Tatoeba

在云的遮蔽下无法见到月亮。

Zài yún de zhēbì xià wúfǎ jiàndào yuèliang.

The moon is invisible behind the clouds.

Tatoeba

她被爱情蒙蔽了双眼。

Tā bèi àiqíng méngbì le shuāngyǎn.

She is blinded by love.

Tatoeba

但愿我能找到在我的博客上屏蔽评论的办法。

Dànyuàn wǒ néng zhǎodào zài wǒ de bókè shàng píngbì pínglùn de bànfǎ.

I wish I could figure out how to disable comments on my blog.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 艹 (grass) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced bì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 蔽 (bì) mean in Chinese?
蔽 (bì) primarily means "to cover, to hide." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2084 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 蔽 and 撇?
蔽 (bì) and 撇 (piē) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 艹 vs 扌 (same 敝 component).
How many strokes does 蔽 have?
蔽 is written with 14 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 蔽?
The radical associated with 蔽 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 蔽?
蔽 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 敝 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹敝 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 蔽?
Common words with 蔽 include: 隐蔽 (yǐn bì, "to conceal"); 蒙蔽 (méng bì, "to deceive"); 屏蔽 (píng bì, "to screen"); 遮蔽 (zhē bì, "to cover"); 掩蔽 (yǎn bì, "shelter"). There are over 17 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 蔽 (bì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bì: 比 (Belgium), 必 (certainly), 笔 (writing brush), 避 (to avoid), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 蔽 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 蔽 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 蔽 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.