彬 (bīn): urbane, well-bred, cultivated

彬 (bīn) is a Chinese character meaning “urbane.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 林 (phonetic) and 彡 (semantic). It ranks #2592 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 彬 hair. Its radical form 彡 (bristle) appears in many related characters such as 影 (yǐng, picture), 形 (xíng, to appear), 彩 (cǎi, (bright) color).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 彡 bristle11 strokesFrequency #2592林 phonetic彡 semantic

Definitions

  1. urbane
  2. well-bred
  3. cultivated

Etymology & Origin

彬

pictophonetichair

Decomposition: ⿰林彡 (layout: left-right)

Components:林phonetic彡semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
彬彬有礼bīn bīn yǒu lǐrefined and courteous
文质彬彬wén zhì bīn bīnrefined in manner
中山成彬zhōng shān chéng bīnNAKAYAMA Nariaki (1943–), right-wing Japanese politician and prominent denier of Japanese war crimes
彬马那bīn mǎ nàPyinmana, town in central Myanmar
彬彬君子bīn bīn jūn zǐrefined gentleman
彬彬bīn bīnrefined, gentle, and elegant
彬蔚bīn wèierudite and refined
7
Total compounds
71
As first character
14
As last character
14
As middle character

彬 appears in 7 compound words: 71 as the first character, 14 as the last, and 14 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 彬 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

彰zhāng
0.4933,522 co-occurrences
朴pǔ
0.4161,398 co-occurrences
曹cáo
0.4051,776 co-occurrences
秀xiù
0.4003,510 co-occurrences
李lǐ
0.3966,060 co-occurrences
庞páng
0.395480 co-occurrences
炫xuàn
0.384300 co-occurrences
贺hè
0.384582 co-occurrences
朵duǒ
0.382612 co-occurrences
刘liú
0.3811,968 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

彬彬君子bīn bīn jūn zǐHSK 7+

refined gentleman

phrase
彬彬有礼bīnbīnyǒulǐHSK 7+

to be refined and courteous

phrase

Showing 2 of 3 idioms containing 彬.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个彬字的意思与它的部首有关。

zhè gě bīn zì de yì sī yú tā de bù shǒu yǒu guān .

The meaning of the character "彬" is related to its radical.

T客邦Apr 2026

...iet Joker》登场!结城爱良、松田彬人联手打造,新动漫生成模型Tsubaki...

. . . i e t J o k e r dēng chǎng ! jié chéng ài liáng , sōng tián bīn rén lián shǒu dǎ zào , xīn dòng màn shēng chéng mó xíng T s u b a k i . . .

TvbsMar 2026

廉世彬胜利女神发威!合体高佳彬、金佳垠 韩籍3...

lián shì bīn shèng lì nǚ shén fā wēi ! gě tǐ gāo jiā bīn , jīn jiā 垠 hán jí 3 . . .

BastillepostMar 2026

Stray Kids 彰彬砸4900万港元购入豪宅 全额付清成刘在...

S t r a y K i d s zhāng bīn zá 4 9 0 0 wàn gǎng yuán gòu rù háo zhái quán é fù qīng chéng liú zài . . .

Stray Kids' Jangbin Spends HK$49 Million on Luxury Mansion, Pays in Full to Become the Next...

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

高佳彬是谁?河回面具女神、台湾手摇都喝半糖 加...

gāo jiā bīn shì shéi ? hé huí miàn jù nǚ shén , tái wān shǒu yáo dōu hē bàn táng jiā . . .

Who is Gao Jiabin? The "Goddess of Hahoe Masks," who orders her bubble tea in Taiwan with half the usual sugar...

Tatoeba

汤姆既彬彬有礼又善解人意。

Tāngmǔ jì bīnbīnyǒulǐ yòu shànjiěrényì.

Tom is polite and sensitive.

Character Family

彡 Radical Family — Characters sharing the bristle radical

彩cǎi修xiū影yǐng彰zhāng形xíng

Related Characters

影yǐng形xíng彩cǎi彰zhāng

Homophones — Characters pronounced bīn

宾bīn滨bīn缤bīn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 彬 (bīn) mean in Chinese?
彬 (bīn) primarily means "urbane." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2592 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 彬 and 禁?
彬 (bīn) and 禁 (jīn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 彡 vs 礻 (same 林 component).
How many strokes does 彬 have?
彬 is written with 11 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 彬?
The radical associated with 彬 is 彡 (bristle). This radical appears in many characters related to bristle.
What are the components of 彬?
彬 is composed of: 林 (phonetic), 彡 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰林彡 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 彬?
Common words with 彬 include: 彬彬有礼 (bīn bīn yǒu lǐ, "refined and courteous"); 文质彬彬 (wén zhì bīn bīn, "refined in manner"); 中山成彬 (zhōng shān chéng bīn, "NAKAYAMA Nariaki (1943–), right-wing Japanese politician and prominent denier of Japanese war crimes"); 彬马那 (bīn mǎ nà, "Pyinmana, town in central Myanmar"); 彬彬君子 (bīn bīn jūn zǐ, "refined gentleman"). There are over 7 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 彬 (bīn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bīn: 宾 (visitor), 滨 ((bound form) water's edge), 缤 (used in 繽紛|缤纷). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 彬 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 彬 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 彬 with real-time feedback

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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.