簸 (bǒ): to winnow, to toss up and down

簸 (bǒ) is a Chinese character meaning “to winnow.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of ⺮ (semantic). It ranks #3093 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 簸 bamboo. Its radical form ⺮ (⺮) appears in many related characters.

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-919 strokesFrequency #3093⺮ semantic

Definitions

  1. to winnow
  2. to toss up and down

Etymology & Origin

簸

pictophoneticbamboo

Decomposition: ⿱⺮⿰其皮 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:⺮semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
颠簸diān bǒto be jolted around (car on a bumpy road, boat on a rough sea, aircraft experiencing turbulence)
簸箕bò jīwicker or bamboo winnowing basket
簸扬bǒ yángto winnow
簸谷bǒ gǔto winnow grain
簸荡bǒ dàngto be tossed around (like a boat on a rough sea)
5
Total compounds
80
As first character
20
As last character
0
As middle character

簸 appears in 5 compound words: 80 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 0 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 簸 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

颠diān
0.6801,242 co-occurrences
川chuān
0.422810 co-occurrences
烈liè
0.413378 co-occurrences
晃huǎng
0.38548 co-occurrences
剧jù
0.380348 co-occurrences
弄nòng
0.33036 co-occurrences
扬yáng
0.32142 co-occurrences
浪làng
0.30754 co-occurrences
湾wān
0.30248 co-occurrences
村cūn
0.299240 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习簸字需要反复练习，才能写得工整。

xué xí bǒ zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Learning to write the character "箕" requires repeated practice to ensure it is written neatly.

Character Family

⺮ Radical Family — Characters sharing the ⺮ radical

笨bèn策cè筹chóu簇cù符fú竿gān管guǎn籍jí简jiǎn箭jiàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 簸 (bǒ) mean in Chinese?
簸 (bǒ) primarily means "to winnow." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3093 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 簸 and 下?
簸 (bǒ) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 簸 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 簸 have?
簸 is written with 19 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 簸?
The radical associated with 簸 is ⺮. This radical appears in many characters related to this concept.
What are the components of 簸?
簸 is composed of: ⺮ (semantic), undefined (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱⺮⿰其皮 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 簸?
Common words with 簸 include: 颠簸 (diān bǒ, "to be jolted around (car on a bumpy road, boat on a rough sea, aircraft experiencing turbulence)"); 簸箕 (bò jī, "wicker or bamboo winnowing basket"); 簸扬 (bǒ yáng, "to winnow"); 簸谷 (bǒ gǔ, "to winnow grain"); 簸荡 (bǒ dàng, "to be tossed around (like a boat on a rough sea)"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
Is 簸 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 簸 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 簸 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.