饼 (bǐng): cake, pancake

饼 (bǐng) is a Chinese character meaning “cake, pancake.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 饣 (semantic) and 并 (phonetic). It ranks #2289 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 饼 food. Its radical form 饣 (eat) appears in many related characters such as 饭 (fàn, meal, rice), 饿 (è, hungry), 馆 (guǎn, restaurant, hall).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. cake, pancake

Etymology & Origin

饼

pictophoneticfood

Decomposition: ⿰饣并 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 饼

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
饼干nounbǐng gānbiscuit4
月饼nounyuè bǐngmooncake (esp. for the Mid-Autumn Festival)4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
馅饼nounxiàn bǐngmeat pie
煎饼nounjiān bǐngjianbing, a savory Chinese crêpe
薄饼nounbáo bǐngthin flat cake
肉饼nounròu bǐngmeat patty
比萨饼nounbǐ sà bǐngpizza (loanword)
玉米饼yù mǐ bǐngcorn cake
糕饼noungāo bǐngcakes
烙饼nounlào bǐngpancake
大饼noundà bǐnglarge flat bread
烧饼nounshāo bingbaked sesame seed-coated cake
馅儿饼nounxiàn r bǐngerhua variant of 餡餅|馅饼
油饼nounyóu bǐngdeep-fried doughcake
饼子nounbǐng zimaize or millet pancake
画饼充饥phrasehuà bǐng chōng jīlit. to allay one's hunger using a picture of a cake
铁饼nountiě bǐng(athletics) discus
80
Total compounds
11
As first character
81
As last character
8
As middle character

饼 appears in 80 compound words: 11 as the first character, 81 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 饼 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

煎jiān
0.6211,048 co-occurrences
馅xiàn
0.621569 co-occurrences
酥sū
0.511152 co-occurrences
烧shāo
0.493462 co-occurrences
干gān
0.4841,595 co-occurrences
铁tiě
0.4771,596 co-occurrences
摊tān
0.47490 co-occurrences
烤kǎo
0.471198 co-occurrences
薄báo
0.460360 co-occurrences
颗kē
0.45011 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

画饼充饥huàbǐngchōngjīHSK 6+

to feed on illusions; (of something attractive-looking) to be of no actual use; like a pie in the sky

phrase
夹心饼干jiāxīn bǐnggānHSK 6+

cookie sandwich; a middleman who has to tolerate frustration from both sides

noun
苏打饼干sūdá bǐnggānHSK 7+

soda cracker; saltine

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

早餐我吃了两个煎饼,配了一杯豆浆。

Zǎocān wǒ chī le liǎng gè jiānbing, pèi le yì bēi dòujiāng.

For breakfast, I had two pancakes with a cup of soy milk.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

中钢员工餐厅年销百万颗月饼、自助餐75元夹到饱...“亏钱也要卖”...

zhōng gāng yuán gōng cān tīng nián xiāo bǎi wàn kē yuè bǐng , zì zhù cān 7 5 yuán jiā dào bǎo . . . kuī qián yě yāo mài . . .

Sinosteel employee restaurant sells millions of mooncakes every year, buffet 75 yuan sandwich... "Even if you lose money, you have to sell"...

StheadlineFeb 2026

12款中式传统饼类热量排行榜 吃1个鸡批=1碗白饭 营养...

1 2 kuǎn zhōng shì chuán tǒng bǐng lèi rè liàng pái háng bǎng chī 1 gè jī pī 1 wǎn bái fàn yíng yǎng . . .

12 traditional Chinese cakes calorie ranking Eat 1 chicken pie = 1 bowl of rice Nutrition...

99 健康网Feb 2026

无糖食品有哪些东西?代糖饼干、无糖豆浆、黑巧算吗

wú táng shí pǐn yǒu nǎ xiē dōng xī ? dài táng bǐng gān wú táng dòu jiāng hēi qiǎo suàn ma

What are some examples of sugar-free foods? Do sugar-free cookies, sugar-free soy milk, and dark chocolate count?

99 健康网Feb 2026

无糖食物等于健康食物吗?高脂无糖饼干热量依然高吗

wú táng shí wù děng yú jiàn kāng shí wù ma ? gāo zhī wú táng bǐng gān rè liàng yī rán gāo ma

Does sugar-free food equal healthy food? Are high-fat, sugar-free cookies still high in calories?

NewsFeb 2026

米可白春节鹿港老街卖饼 累到双耳耳鸣、声音沙哑

mǐ kě bái chūn jié lù gǎng lǎo jiē mài bǐng lěi dào shuāng ěr ěr míng shēng yīn shā yā

Miko Bai sold pastries on Lukang Old Street during the Spring Festival, working so hard that her ears rang and her voice became hoarse.

Tatoeba

汤姆吃了一片比萨饼。

Tāngmǔ chī le yī piàn bǐsàbǐng.

Tom ate a slice of pizza.

Tatoeba

汤姆烤了些巧克力脆饼。

Tāngmǔ kǎo le xiē qiǎokèlì cuì bǐng.

Tom baked some chocolate chip cookies.

Tatoeba

有人想要更多的馅饼吗?

Yǒurén xiǎngyào gèng duō de xiànbǐng ma?

Does anyone want some more pie?

Tatoeba

你要再来一块馅饼吗?

Nǐ yào zài lái yīkuài xiànbǐng ma?

Will you have another slice of pie?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 饣 (food) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced bǐng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 饼 (bǐng) mean in Chinese?
饼 (bǐng) primarily means "cake, pancake." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #2289 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 饼 and 瓶?
饼 (bǐng) and 瓶 (píng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 饣 vs 瓦 (same 并 component).
How many strokes does 饼 have?
饼 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 饼?
The radical associated with 饼 is 饣 (eat). This radical appears in many characters related to eat.
What are the components of 饼?
饼 is composed of: 饣 (semantic), 并 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰饣并 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 饼?
Common words with 饼 include: 饼干 (bǐng gān, "biscuit"); 馅饼 (xiàn bǐng, "meat pie"); 煎饼 (jiān bǐng, "jianbing, a savory Chinese crêpe"); 薄饼 (báo bǐng, "thin flat cake"); 肉饼 (ròu bǐng, "meat patty"). There are over 80 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 饼 (bǐng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bǐng: 并 (and), 病 (illness), 兵 (soldiers), 冰 (ice), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 饼 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 饼 and the traditional form is 餅.

Practice writing 饼 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.