病 (bìng): illness

病 (bìng) is a Chinese character meaning “illness.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 疒 (semantic) and 丙 (phonetic). It ranks #427 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 病 sickness. Its radical form 疒 (illness) appears in many related characters such as 医 (yī, medicine), 疼 (téng, ache), 痛 (tòng, pain).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. illness

Etymology & Origin

病

pictophoneticsickness

Decomposition: ⿸疒丙 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 病

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
病人nounbìng rénsick person3
病毒nounbìng dúvirus6
毛病nounmáo bìngfault5
生病verbshēng bìngto fall ill1
疾病nounjí bìngdisease5
病情nounbìng qíngstate of an illness5
病房nounbìng fángward (of a hospital)5
看病verbkàn bìngto visit a doctor1
传染病nounchuán rǎn bìnginfectious disease6
发病verbfā bìng(of an illness) to occur6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
心脏病nounxīn zàng bìngheart disease
精神病jīng shén bìngmental disorder
神经病shén jīng bìngmental disorder
精神病院jīng shén bìng yuànmental hospital
病例nounbìng lì(medical) case
糖尿病nountáng niào bìngdiabetes
病历nounbìng lìmedical record
艾滋病nounài zī bìng(loanword) AIDS
病态nounbìng tàimorbid or abnormal state
病假nounbìng jiàsick leave
性病nounxìng bìngsexually transmitted disease
病症nounbìng zhèngdisease
病菌nounbìng jūnharmful bacteria
病史nounbìng shǐmedical history
白血病bái xuè bìngleukemia
117
Total compounds
52
As first character
46
As last character
2
As middle character

病 appears in 117 compound words: 52 as the first character, 46 as the last, and 2 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 病 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

诊zhěn
0.70542,532 co-occurrences
疾jí
0.69065,624 co-occurrences
毒dú
0.64485,436 co-occurrences
例lì
0.62693,730 co-occurrences
确què
0.61041,640 co-occurrences
逝shì
0.60338,762 co-occurrences
患huàn
0.58331,134 co-occurrences
滋zī
0.5588,244 co-occurrences
炎yán
0.54613,824 co-occurrences
染rǎn
0.53222,058 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (20)

艾滋病毒àizī bìngdúHSK 7+

HIV (virus)

noun
包治百病bāozhìbǎibìngHSK 5+

guaranteed to cure all illnesses; cure-all; bags can cure all unhappiness

phrase
病病歪歪bìngbing-wāiwāiHSK 6+

sickly-looking

adjective
病病殃殃bìngbing-yāngyāngHSK 7+

looking or feeling sickly

adjective
病从口入bìngcóngkǒurùHSK 4+

illness enters from the mouth

phrase
病毒感染bìng dú gǎn rǎnHSK 6+

viral infection

phrase
病国殃民bìng guó yāng mínHSK 7+

to damage the country and cause suffering to the people (idiom)

phrase
病民害国bìng mín hài guóHSK 4+

to damage the people and harm the country (idiom)

phrase
病态肥胖bìngtài féipàngHSK 5+

morbidly obese

adjective
多愁多病duō chóu duō bìngHSK 6+

much sorrows and illness (idiom); melancholy and weakly

phrase
久病成医jiǔbìngchéngyīHSK 3+

experience is the best teacher

phrase
贫病交迫pín bìng jiāo pòHSK 6+

beset by poverty and illness (idiom)

phrase

Showing 12 of 20 idioms containing 病.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他生病了,需要请假休息几天。

Tā shēngbìng le, xūyào qǐngjià xiūxi jǐ tiān.

He is sick and needs to take a few days off to rest.

東方日報Feb 2026

釣魚逾60年皮膚曬成朱古力色 老翁病逝

釣 魚 yú nián pí 膚 曬 chéng zhū gǔ lì sè lǎo wēng bìng shì

After over 60 years of fishing, his skin tanned to a chocolate brown. The elderly man passed away.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...蘭?特朗普宣布派遣醫療船赴當地「協助很多病人」

. . . 蘭 ? tè lǎng pǔ xuān bù pài qiǎn 醫 療 chuán fù 當 dì 協 zhù hěn duō bìng rén

Trump announced the dispatch of a medical ship to the area to "assist many patients."

TvbsFeb 2026

陳光復最新病況!家屬曝「睜眼、對聲音有反應」 昏迷指...

陳 guāng 復 zuì xīn bìng 況 ! jiā 屬 pù 睜 yǎn 對 聲 yīn yǒu fǎn 應 hūn mí zhǐ . . .

Chen Guangfu's latest condition! Family reveals "eyes open, reacts to sounds" Coma indicates…

東森新聞Feb 2026

收假別鬆懈慎防諾羅、腸病毒、B流 防疫重點一次看

shōu jiǎ 別 鬆 xiè shèn fáng 諾 羅 腸 bìng dú liú fáng yì chóng 點 yī cì kàn

Don't let your guard down after the holidays—stay vigilant against norovirus, enterovirus, and influenza B. Key prevention measures at a glance.

東方日報Feb 2026

瀋陽鑄造研究所前黨委書記徐人瑞病逝 享年86歲

瀋 陽 鑄 zào yán jiū suǒ qián 黨 wěi 書 記 xú rén ruì bìng shì xiǎng nián 歲

Xu Renrui, Former Party Secretary of Shenyang Foundry Research Institute, Passes Away at Age 86

StheadlineFeb 2026

...出彈入否認健康亮紅燈 官方昨稱退團專心養病

. . . chū 彈 rù fǒu 認 jiàn kāng liàng 紅 燈 guān fāng zuó 稱 tuì 團 專 xīn 養 bìng

...Denies health concerns amid rumors of withdrawal Officials stated yesterday that he left the group to focus on recuperation

工商時報Feb 2026

聲稱幫助病患 川普:將向格陵蘭島派遣醫療船

聲 稱 幫 zhù bìng huàn chuān pǔ 將 xiàng gé líng 蘭 島 pài qiǎn 醫 療 chuán

Claiming to help patients, Trump: Will send medical ship to Greenland

Tatoeba

你曾经得过重病吗?

Nǐ céngjīng dé guo zhòng bìng ma?

Have you ever had any serious illness?

Tatoeba

你看起来不太舒服。是生病了吗?

Nǐ kànqǐlai bù tài shūfu. shì shēngbìng le ma?

You don't seem to be comfortable. Are you ill?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 疒 (sickness) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced bìng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 病 (bìng) mean in Chinese?
病 (bìng) primarily means "illness." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #427 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 病 have?
病 is written with 10 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 病?
The radical associated with 病 is 疒 (illness). This radical appears in many characters related to illness.
What are the components of 病?
病 is composed of: 疒 (semantic), 丙 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸疒丙 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 病?
Common words with 病 include: 病人 (bìng rén, "sick person"); 病毒 (bìng dú, "virus"); 毛病 (máo bìng, "fault"); 生病 (shēng bìng, "to fall ill"); 疾病 (jí bìng, "disease"). There are over 117 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 病 (bìng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bìng: 柄 (handle or shaft (of an axe etc)), 并 (and), 兵 (soldiers), 冰 (ice), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 病 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 病 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 病 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.