扁 (biǎn): flat, (coll.) to beat (sb) up, (bound form) small

扁 (biǎn) is a Chinese character meaning “flat.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 户 (structural). It ranks #1721 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. flat
  2. (coll.) to beat (sb) up
  3. (bound form) small

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
扁桃体nounbiǎn táo tǐtonsil
扁平adjectivebiǎn píngflat
扁豆nounbiǎn dòuhyacinth bean
扁平足nounbiǎn píng zúflat feet
扁桃腺nounbiǎn táo xiàntonsil
扁舟nounpiān zhōu(literary) small boat
扁担nounbiǎn dancarrying pole
陈水扁chén shuǐ biǎnChen Shui-Bian (1950-), Taiwanese DPP 民進黨|民进党 politician, president of the Republic of China 2000-2008
扁形动物nounbiǎn xíng dòng wùflatworm
走扁带zǒu biǎn dàislacklining
看扁verbkàn biǎnto have a low opinion of
扁担星proper-nounbiǎn dan xīngAltair and its two adjacent stars
海扁hǎi biǎn(slang) to beat sb up
阿扁ā biǎnA-bian, nickname of Chen Shui-bian 陳水扁|陈水扁
倒扁dǎo biǎnTaiwan political movement aimed at forcing the resignation of President Chen Shui-bian 陳水扁|陈水扁 in ...
35
Total compounds
66
As first character
29
As last character
6
As middle character

扁 appears in 35 compound words: 66 as the first character, 29 as the last, and 6 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 扁 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

吻wěn
0.507964 co-occurrences
稍shāo
0.487940 co-occurrences
水shuǐ
0.4706,778 co-occurrences
鲨shā
0.464206 co-occurrences
豆dòu
0.431548 co-occurrences
桃táo
0.426806 co-occurrences
形xíng
0.4233,422 co-occurrences
呈chéng
0.418892 co-occurrences
圆yuán
0.409484 co-occurrences
鼻bí
0.401324 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

扁桃腺炎biǎntáoxiàn yánHSK 7+

tonsillitis

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了扁字的详细解释。

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

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

LtnMar 2026

屏东女青年发起捡菸蒂活动 陈水扁留言加油

bǐng dōng nǚ qīng nián fā qǐ jiǎn 菸 dì huó dòng chén shuǐ piān liú yán jiā yóu

Young women in Pingtung launch cigarette butt cleanup campaign; Chen Shui-bian leaves a message of encouragement

三立新聞網Mar 2026

气小孩不受教!台中虎妈痛扁2童打到断指

qì xiǎo hái bù shòu jiào ! tái zhōng hǔ mā tòng piān 2 tóng dǎ dào duàn zhǐ

"That unruly child won't listen!" Taichung "Tiger Mom" beats two children so severely that one loses a finger

LtnMar 2026

一次解决消音、火焰和后座力 美绿扁帽枪枝装备MFMD枪口系统

yī cì jiě jué xiāo yīn , huǒ yàn hé hòu zuò lì měi lǜ piān mào qiāng zhī zhuāng bèi M F M D qiāng kǒu xì tǒng

Silencing, muzzle flash, and recoil—all addressed in one go: Mei Lü Bian Mao firearms equipped with the MFMD muzzle system

中時新聞網Mar 2026

绿扁帽当到反恐首长!肯特一封辞职信 如何撕裂...

lǜ piān mào dāng dào fǎn kǒng shǒu cháng ! kěn tè yī fēng cí zhí xìn rú hé sī liè . . .

A Green Beret Becomes Head of Counterterrorism! How Kent’s Resignation Letter Tore Apart...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

台中台74线五车连环撞 计程车车尾撞扁...近8旬乘客受伤

tái zhōng tái 7 4 xiàn wǔ chē lián huán zhuàng jì chéng chē chē wěi zhuàng piān . . . jìn 8 xún chéng kè shòu shāng

Taichung Taiwan Line 74 five cars collided in a series of taxi tails... Nearly 80 passengers were injured

Tatoeba

我真的很想扁一个人。

Wǒ zhēn de hěn xiǎng biǎn yīgèrén.

I really need to hit somebody.

Tatoeba

使用这个香蕉盒,可以让您运送香蕉时不会压扁它们。

Shǐyòng zhège xiāngjiāo hé, kěyǐ ràng nín yùnsòng xiāngjiāo shí bù huì yābiǎn tāmen.

By using this banana case, you can transport bananas without squashing them.

Character Family

户 Radical Family — Characters sharing the door radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced biǎn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 扁 (biǎn) mean in Chinese?
扁 (biǎn) primarily means "flat." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1721 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 扁 and 大?
扁 (biǎn) and 大 (dà) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 扁 (small) vs 大 (big).
How many strokes does 扁 have?
扁 is written with 9 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 扁?
The radical associated with 扁 is 户 (door). This radical appears in many characters related to door.
What are the components of 扁?
扁 is composed of: 户 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 扁?
Common words with 扁 include: 扁桃体 (biǎn táo tǐ, "tonsil"); 扁平 (biǎn píng, "flat"); 扁豆 (biǎn dòu, "hyacinth bean"); 扁平足 (biǎn píng zú, "flat feet"); 扁桃腺 (biǎn táo xiàn, "tonsil"). There are over 35 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 扁 (biǎn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation biǎn: 变 (to change), 边 (side), 便 (convenient), 编 (to edit, to compile), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 扁 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 扁 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 扁 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.