伯 (bó): father's elder brother, senior, paternal elder uncle

伯 (bó) is a Chinese character meaning “father's elder brother.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亻 (semantic) and 白 (phonetic). It ranks #821 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 伯 person. Its radical form 亻 (person) appears in many related characters such as 人 (rén, person), 什 (shén, what), 今 (jīn, now).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. father's elder brother
  2. senior
  3. paternal elder uncle

Etymology & Origin

伯

pictophoneticperson

Decomposition: ⿰亻白 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
伯爵nounbó juéearl
罗伯特proper-nounluó bó tèRobert (name)
阿拉伯proper-nounā lā bóArabian
韦伯measurewéi bóweber (unit of magnetic flux, Wb)
伯恩proper-nounbó ēn(Tw) Bern, capital of Switzerland
希伯来adjectivexī bó láiHebrew
西伯利亚xī bó lì yàSiberia
伯克利proper-nounbó kè lìBerkeley
阿拉伯语nounā lā bó yǔArabic (language)
亚伯proper-nounyà bóAbe (short form for Abraham)
亚伯拉罕proper-nounyà bó lā hǎn(name) Abraham
伯母nounbó mǔwife of father's elder brother
伯父nounbó fùfather's elder brother
伯利恒proper-nounbó lì héngBethlehem
阿尔伯特ā ěr bó tèAlbert (name)
101
Total compounds
28
As first character
25
As last character
48
As middle character

伯 appears in 101 compound words: 28 as the first character, 25 as the last, and 48 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 伯 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

爵jué
0.63541,282 co-occurrences
阿ā
0.54970,663 co-occurrences
特tè
0.51277,338 co-occurrences
拉lā
0.50768,440 co-occurrences
罕hǎn
0.4725,214 co-occurrences
沈shěn
0.46613 co-occurrences
罗luó
0.46023,738 co-occurrences
坎kǎn
0.4453,462 co-occurrences
格gé
0.42625,322 co-occurrences
希xī
0.42313,076 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (19)

阿尔伯塔Ā'ěrbótǎHSK 7+

Alberta (a province of Canada)

阿拉伯海Ālābó HǎiHSK 7+

Arabian Sea

阿拉伯胶ālābó jiāoHSK 7+

gum arabic

noun
阿拉伯糖ālābótángHSK 7+

arabinose

noun
阿拉伯文ĀlābówénHSK 7+

Arabic (language)

noun
阿拉伯语ĀlābóyǔHSK 7+

Arabic (language)

noun
伯恩茅斯Bó'ēnmáosīHSK 7+

Bournemouth

伯仲叔季bózhòngshūjìHSK 7+

eldest, second, third and youngest of brothers; order of seniority among brothers

phrase
伯仲之间bó zhòng zhī jiānHSK 7+

almost on a par

phrase
不分伯仲bùfēnbózhòngHSK 7+

to be equally excellent; on a par

phrase
杜尔伯特Dù'ěrbótèHSK 7+

(~氏) An ancient Mongolian clan; (~部) Dörbet (Mongolian tribe of Borjigit-clan origin)

将伯之助qiāng bó zhī zhùHSK 7+

assistance that one gets from another

phrase

Showing 12 of 19 idioms containing 伯.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他伯品很好,在村里很受尊敬。

tā bà pǐn hěn hǎo , zài cūn lǐ hěn shòu zūn jìng .

He is of excellent character and is highly respected in the village.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

哈伯望远镜进入死亡螺旋?专家指高度下降变快 ...

hā bó wàng yuǎn jìng jìn rù sǐ wáng luó xuán ? zhuān jiā zhǐ gāo dù xià jiàng biàn kuài . . .

Hubble telescope enters death spiral? Experts say that the altitude drops faster ...

東森新聞Feb 2026

过年练唱“分手快乐”告别川伯? 蒋万安:拭目以待

guò nián liàn chàng fēn shǒu kuài lè gào bié chuān bó ? 蒋 wàn ān : 拭 mù yǐ dài

New Year's practice singing "Happy Breakup" to say goodbye to Uncle Chuan? Jiang Wan'an: We'll see

Irna ChineseFeb 2026

88%的阿拉伯民众反对承认以色列政权

8 8 de ā lā bó mín zhòng fǎn duì chéng rèn yǐ sè liè zhèng quán

88% of the Arab population opposes the recognition of the Israeli regime

Irna ChineseFeb 2026

沙特阿拉伯前官员:任何对伊朗的军事打击都将是一场代...

shā tè ā lā bó qián guān yuán : rèn hé duì yī lǎng de jūn shì dǎ jī dōu jiāng shì yī chǎng dài . . .

Former Saudi Arabian official: Any military strike on Iran will be a generation...

東森新聞Feb 2026

川伯赠“铁锤”盼建设台中! 江启臣:北中联手

chuān bó zèng tiě chuí pàn jiàn shè tái zhōng ! jiāng qǐ chén : běi zhōng lián shǒu

Chuan Bo gave a "hammer" to build Taichung! Jiang Qichen: Beijing and China join forces

Tatoeba

鲍伯和玛丽演奏直笛​​。

Bàobó hé Mǎlì yǎnzòu zhídí ​​.

Bob and Mary play the recorder.

Tatoeba

亚伯拉罕·林肯是名人。

Yàbólāhǎn · Línkěn shì míngrén.

Abraham Lincoln is a famous person.

Tatoeba

我的伯叔住在纽约。

Wǒ de bóshū zhù zài Niǔyuē.

My uncle lives in New York.

Tatoeba

他在用伯伯尔语阅读圣经。

Tā zài yòng bóbo ěr yǔ yuèdú Shèngjīng.

He's reading the Bible in Berber.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 亻 (person) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced bó

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 伯 (bó) mean in Chinese?
伯 (bó) primarily means "father's elder brother." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #821 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 伯 and 百?
伯 (bó) and 百 (bǎi) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 亻 vs 白 (same 白 component).
How many strokes does 伯 have?
伯 is written with 7 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 伯?
The radical associated with 伯 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 伯?
伯 is composed of: 亻 (semantic), 白 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻白 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 伯?
Common words with 伯 include: 伯爵 (bó jué, "earl"); 罗伯特 (luó bó tè, "Robert (name)"); 阿拉伯 (ā lā bó, "Arabian"); 韦伯 (wéi bó, "weber (unit of magnetic flux, Wb)"); 伯恩 (bó ēn, "(Tw) Bern, capital of Switzerland"). There are over 101 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 伯 (bó)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bó: 泊 (to moor (a boat)), 舶 (ship), 帛 (silk). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 伯 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 伯 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 伯 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.