鄙 (bǐ): rustic, low, base

鄙 (bǐ) is a Chinese character meaning “rustic.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 啚 (phonetic) and 阝 (semantic). It ranks #2424 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 鄙 village. Its radical form 阝 (mound) appears in many related characters such as 那 (nà, (specifier) that), 都 (dōu, all), 院 (yuàn, courtyard).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. rustic
  2. low
  3. base

Etymology & Origin

鄙

pictophoneticvillage

Decomposition: ⿰啚阝 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
卑鄙adjectivebēi bǐbase
鄙视verbbǐ shìto despise
鄙人nounbǐ rényour humble servant
粗鄙adjectivecū bǐvulgar
可鄙adjectivekě bǐbase
鄙夷verbbǐ yíto despise
鄙弃verbbǐ qìto disdain
鄙陋adjectivebǐ lòusuperficial
鄙见nounbǐ jiàn(my) humble opinion
边鄙nounbiān bǐremote
鄙称nounbǐ chēngderogatory term
鄙视链nounbǐ shì liàna ranking of items in a particular category, with the most highly regarded on top (neologism c. 2012, coined by analo...
卑鄙无耻phrasebēi bǐ wú chǐ(idiom) shameless
鄙俗adjectivebǐ súvulgar
鄙薄verbbǐ bóto despise
24
Total compounds
67
As first character
25
As last character
8
As middle character

鄙 appears in 24 compound words: 67 as the first character, 25 as the last, and 8 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 鄙 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

卑bēi
0.6751,863 co-occurrences
陋lòu
0.509136 co-occurrences
吝lìn
0.49752 co-occurrences
贪tān
0.477134 co-occurrences
粗cū
0.476342 co-occurrences
夷yí
0.464266 co-occurrences
耿gěng
0.441104 co-occurrences
耻chǐ
0.42036 co-occurrences
婪lán
0.40622 co-occurrences
庸yōng
0.39668 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

卑鄙无耻bēibǐwúchǐHSK 7+

shameless and immoral

phrase
卑鄙龌龊bēibǐwòchuòHSK 7+

vile; despicable

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

鄙字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

bǐ zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

Though my name is difficult to write, its meaning is quite interesting.

少数派Sep 2026

鄙人才疏学浅,实在找不到一个合适的形容词来形容我参加完以上几场面试的感受。

bǐ rén cái shū xué qiǎn , shí zài zhǎo bù dào yī gè gě shì de xíng róng cí lái xíng róng wǒ cān jiā wán yǐ shàng jī chǎng miàn shì de gǎn shòu .

I am neither talented nor well-educated, so I truly cannot find a suitable adjective to describe how I felt after participating in the interviews mentioned above.

少数派Sep 2026

国产游戏机因为远离核心玩家,常处在鄙视链的末端。

guó chǎn yóu xì jī yīn wéi yuǎn lí hé xīn wán jiā , cháng chǔ zài bǐ shì liàn de mò duān .

Because domestic game consoles are far removed from core gamers, they often find themselves at the bottom of the "hierarchy of contempt."

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

和小说一样,他的镜头里,华丽、宏伟、高尚永远遥不可及,卑鄙、肮脏、疲倦总是持续不断。

hé xiǎo shuō yī yàng , tā de jìng tóu lǐ , huá lí , hóng wěi , gāo shàng yǒng yuǎn yáo bù kě jí , bēi bǐ , 肮 zāng , pí juàn zǒng shì chí xù bù duàn .

Just like in a novel, in his films, splendor, grandeur, and nobility are always out of reach, while baseness, filth, and weariness are ever-present.

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

祈锦鈅离婚突PO大肚片!痛批前夫卑鄙自私 当单亲妈妈心声全说了

qí jǐn 鈅 lí hūn tū P O dà dù piàn ! tòng pī qián fū bēi bǐ zì sī dāng dān qīn mā mā xīn shēng quán shuō le

Qi Jinjun Posts Pregnancy Photo Amid Divorce! Blasts Ex-Husband as Despicable and Selfish, Shares Her Heartfelt Thoughts as a Single Mom

Tatoeba

我为你的卑鄙行径刚到羞耻。

Wǒ wèi nǐ de bēibǐ xíngjìng gāng dào xiūchǐ.

I am ashamed of your despicable deed.

Tatoeba

他鄙视那个小伙子。

Tā bǐshì nàge xiǎohuǒzi.

She scorned the boy.

Tatoeba

连他的仆人都鄙视他

Lián tā de púrén dōu bǐshì tā

Even his servants despised him.

Tatoeba

他否认鄙视了她。

Tā fǒurèn bǐshì le tā.

He denied he despised her.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 阝 (village) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced bǐ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 鄙 (bǐ) mean in Chinese?
鄙 (bǐ) primarily means "rustic." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2424 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 鄙 and 第?
鄙 (bǐ) and 第 (dì) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 鄙 (low) vs 第 (high).
How many strokes does 鄙 have?
鄙 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 鄙?
The radical associated with 鄙 is 阝 (mound). This radical appears in many characters related to mound.
What are the components of 鄙?
鄙 is composed of: 啚 (phonetic), 阝 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰啚阝 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 鄙?
Common words with 鄙 include: 卑鄙 (bēi bǐ, "base"); 鄙视 (bǐ shì, "to despise"); 鄙人 (bǐ rén, "your humble servant"); 粗鄙 (cū bǐ, "vulgar"); 可鄙 (kě bǐ, "base"). There are over 24 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 鄙 (bǐ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bǐ: 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 鄙 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 鄙 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 鄙 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.