博 (bó): (bound form) abundant, plentiful, extensive, wide, to win, to gain, to play, to gamble

博 (bó) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) abundant.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 十 (semantic) and 尃 (phonetic). It ranks #965 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 博 ten. Its radical form 十 (ten) appears in many related characters such as 十 (shí, ten), 午 (wǔ, 7th earthly branch: 11 a.m.-1 p.m., noon, 5th solar month (6th June-6th July), year of the Horse), 半 (bàn, half).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) abundant
  2. plentiful
  3. extensive
  4. wide
  5. to win
  6. to gain
  7. to play
  8. to gamble

Etymology & Origin

博

pictophoneticten

Decomposition: ⿰十尃 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 博

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
博士nounbó shìdoctor (as an academic degree)4
博物馆nounbó wù guǎnmuseum5
博览会nounbó lǎn huìan exposition6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
赌博verbdǔ bóto gamble
博客nounbó kè(loanword) a blog
博得verbbó déto win
博爱verbbó àito show love and compassion for all humankind
博蒙特bó méng tèBeaumont
博学adjectivebó xuélearned
比尔博proper-nounbǐ ěr bóBilbo Baggins, hero of Tolkien's The Hobbit 霍比特人
博尔顿bó ěr dùnBolton (name)
博罗proper-nounbó luósee 博羅縣|博罗县
渊博adjectiveyuān bóerudite
博取verbbó qǔto win (favors, confidence etc)
博洛尼亚proper-nounbó luò ní yàBologna
博德bó déBodø (city in Norway)
博弈论nounbó yì lùngame theory
博弈nounbó yìgames (such as chess, dice etc)
101
Total compounds
68
As first character
20
As last character
12
As middle character

博 appears in 101 compound words: 68 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 12 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 博 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

士shì
0.636157,532 co-occurrences
馆guǎn
0.62872,492 co-occurrences
弈yì
0.5863,245 co-occurrences
彭péng
0.58243 co-occurrences
微wēi
0.53823,836 co-occurrences
物wù
0.525139,338 co-occurrences
赌dǔ
0.4822,346 co-occurrences
览lǎn
0.4788,121 co-occurrences
学xué
0.43846,500 co-occurrences
硕shuò
0.4332,808 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (17)

博茨瓦纳Bócíwǎnà

Botswana (a country in Southern Africa)

博大精深bódàjīngshēnHSK 4+

wide-ranging and profound; deep

phrase
博而不精bó'érbùjīngHSK 4+

to be a jack of all trades, master of none

phrase
博格达峰Bógédá FēngHSK 6+

Bogda Peak (the highest mountain in the Bogda Shan range, in the eastern Tian Shan mountains, China)

博古通今bógǔtōngjīnHSK 5+

to possess a wide knowledge of things ancient and modern; erudite and informed

phrase
博洛尼亚Bóluòníyà

Bologna (a city in Italy)

博士买驴bóshìmǎilǘ

long-winded, vague and never getting to the point

phrase
博斯腾湖bó sī téng húHSK 7+

Bosten Lake in Xinjiang

phrase
博闻多识bó wén duō shíHSK 4+

learned and erudite; knowledgeable and experienced

phrase
博闻强记bówénqiángjìHSK 4+

synonym of 博學強記 /博学强记 (bóxuéqiángjì, “to have a lot of knowledge and a good memory”)

phrase
博闻强识bówénqiángzhìHSK 4+

erudite; widely read and knowledgeable

phrase
博物多闻bó wù duō wénHSK 4+

wide and knowledgeable; well-informed and experienced

phrase

Showing 12 of 17 idioms containing 博.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

博字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

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

The character "博" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

生于战乱 日军纪念品 变故宫博爱大鼎

shēng yú zhàn luàn rì jūn jì niàn pǐn biàn gù gōng bó ài dà dǐng

Born in the war, Japanese souvenirs turned into the Forbidden City fraternity cauldron

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

彭博示警 缓冲期过后祭301永久措施

彭 bó shì jǐng huǎn chōng qī guò hòu jì 3 0 1 yǒng jiǔ cuò shī

Bloomberg warns of permanent measures to sacrifice 301 after the buffer period

工商時報Feb 2026

...本“猫经济”直逼3兆日圆 几乎追平大阪世博

. . . běn māo jīng jì zhí bī 3 zhào rì yuán jī hū zhuī píng dà 阪 shì bó

... This "cat economy" is close to 3 trillion yen, almost equaling the Osaka World Expo

百度新闻Feb 2026

寻马记|能看到86匹灵动骏马的北齐壁画博物馆

xún mǎ jì néng kàn dào 8 6 pǐ líng dòng jùn mǎ de běi qí bì huà bó wù guǎn

The Northern Qi Mural Museum where you can see 86 smart horses

百度新闻Feb 2026

把年味种在“商城之心”,在商博遇见另一种团圆

bǎ nián wèi zhǒng zài shāng chéng zhī xīn , zài shāng bó yù jiàn lìng yī zhǒng tuán yuán

Plant the flavor of the New Year in the "heart of the mall" and meet another reunion at the Business Expo

Tatoeba

这城里有没有博物馆?

Zhè chéng lǐ yǒuméiyǒu bówùguǎn?

Is there a museum in this town?

Tatoeba

博物馆的入口在哪?

Bówùguǎn de rùkǒu zài nǎ?

Where's the entrance to the museum?

Tatoeba

这条路是不是直接通往普拉多博物馆?

Zhè tiáo lù shìbùshì zhíjiē tōngwǎng Pǔlā duō bówùguǎn?

Is this the direct way to the Prado?

Tatoeba

你不喜欢赌博,是吗?

Nǐ bù xǐhuan dǔbó, shì ma?

You don't like gambling, do you?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 十 (ten) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced bó

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 博 (bó) mean in Chinese?
博 (bó) primarily means "(bound form) abundant." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #965 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 博 and 输?
博 (bó) and 输 (shū) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 博 (win) vs 输 (lose).
How many strokes does 博 have?
博 is written with 12 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 博?
The radical associated with 博 is 十 (ten). This radical appears in many characters related to ten.
What are the components of 博?
博 is composed of: 十 (semantic), 尃 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰十尃 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 博?
Common words with 博 include: 博士 (bó shì, "doctor (as an academic degree)"); 博物馆 (bó wù guǎn, "museum"); 赌博 (dǔ bó, "to gamble"); 博客 (bó kè, "(loanword) a blog"); 博得 (bó dé, "to win"). There are over 101 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 博 (bó)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bó: 搏 (to fight), 膊 (shoulder), 波 (wave), 播 ((bound form) to sow (seeds)), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 博 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 博 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 博 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.