(): to feed, to eat, evening meal

() is a Chinese character meaning “to feed.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2637 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, mouth. Its radical form (mouth) appears in many related characters such as (kǒu, mouth), (jiào, to call, to be called), (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to feed
  2. to eat
  3. evening meal

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口甫 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
bǔ rǔ dòng wùmammal
bǔ rǔbreastfeeding
bǔ yùto feed
bǔ rǔ lèimammals
bǔ rǔ qībreastfeeding period
áo áo dài bǔcry piteously for food
fǎn bǔto support one's parents in their old age
bǔ rǔ lèi dòng wùmammals
bǔ mǔ rǔbreastfeeding
chuò shí tǔ bǔto stop eating and spit out
bǔ yǎngfeed
wèi bǔto feed (a baby)
bǔ rǔ gāngMammalia, the class of mammals
rǔ bǔ(literary) to feed an infant breast milk
14
Total compounds
64
As first character
36
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 14 compound words: 64 as the first character, 36 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.83539,603 co-occurrences
0.51322,471 co-occurrences
dòng
0.49512,889 co-occurrences
yùn
0.463978 co-occurrences
lèi
0.4092,910 co-occurrences
wéi
0.404102 co-occurrences
0.3953,132 co-occurrences
0.383498 co-occurrences
yáng
0.3751,446 co-occurrences
niǎo
0.375414 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

bǔrǔ dòngwùHSK 7+

mammal

noun
chuò shí tǔ bǔHSK 7+

to stop eating and spit out

phrase
áo'áodàibǔHSK 7+

starving; crying out in hunger

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

才很好,能言善辩,是个出色的律师。

tā bǔ cái hěn hǎo , néng yán shàn biàn , shì gě chū sè de lǜ shī .

He is highly intelligent and eloquent, an outstanding lawyer.

99 健康网Feb 2026

...一边做dna的准确率高吗?无创产前检测受乳影响大吗

. . . yī biān zuò d n a de zhǔn què lǜ gāo ma ? wú chuàng chǎn qián jiǎn cè shòu bǔ rǔ yǐng xiǎng dà ma

... Is the accuracy of DNA on the other hand high? Is non-invasive prenatal testing greatly affected by breastfeeding?

99 健康网Feb 2026

...边喂奶一边做dna的准确率受药物影响吗?乳期用药需提前告知吗

. . . biān wéi nǎi yī biān zuò d n a de zhǔn què lǜ shòu yào wù yǐng xiǎng ma ? bǔ rǔ qī yòng yào xū tí qián gào zhī ma

... Is the accuracy of DNA done while breastfeeding affected by drugs? Do I need to inform in advance about lactation medication?

99 健康网Feb 2026

孕妇一边喂奶一边做dna检查有影响吗?乳不会改变自身基因序列吗

yùn fù yī biān wéi nǎi yī biān zuò d n a jiǎn chá yǒu yǐng xiǎng ma ? bǔ rǔ bù huì gǎi biàn zì shēn jī yīn xù liè ma

Does it make a difference for pregnant women to do DNA tests while breastfeeding? Doesn't breastfeeding change its own gene sequence?

99 健康网Feb 2026

避孕药什么时候吃有效?乳期选择哪种避孕药更安全

bì yùn yào shén má shí hòu chī yǒu xiào ? bǔ rǔ qī xuǎn zé nǎ zhǒng bì yùn yào gēng ān quán

When are birth control pills effective? Which birth control pill is safer to choose while breastfeeding

99 健康网Feb 2026

孕期喝了酒对宝宝有没有影响?乳期喝酒也会伤害宝宝吗

yùn qī hē le jiǔ duì bǎo bǎo yǒu méi yǒu yǐng xiǎng ? bǔ rǔ qī hē jiǔ yě huì shāng hài bǎo bǎo ma

Does drinking alcohol during pregnancy affect the baby? Can drinking alcohol while breastfeeding also harm your baby?

Tatoeba

海豚是一种乳动物。

Hǎitún shì yīzhǒng bǔrǔdòngwù.

A dolphin is a kind of mammal.

Tatoeba

鲸是被公认为最大的乳动物。

Jīng shì bèi gōngrèn wèi zuì dà de bǔrǔdòngwù.

The whale is well known to be the largest mammal.

Tatoeba

非洲地松鼠互帮互助,对其他乳动物没有攻击性。

Fēizhōu de sōngshǔ hù bāng hùzhù, duì qítā bǔrǔdòngwù méiyǒu gōngjī xìng.

The African ground squirrels collaborate and are not aggressive to other mammals.

Tatoeba

奶酪是由母牛、山羊、绵羊或其它乳动物的奶被加工制造的坚硬的食物。

Nǎilào shì yóu mǔ niú, shānyáng, miányáng huò qítā bǔrǔdòngwù de nǎi bèi jiāgōng zhìzào de jiānyìng de shíwù.

Cheese is a solid food made from the milk of cows, goats, sheep, and other mammals.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 哺 (bǔ) mean in Chinese?
哺 (bǔ) primarily means "to feed." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2637 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 哺 and 早?
哺 (bǔ) and 早 (zǎo) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 哺 (evening) vs 早 (morning).
How many strokes does 哺 have?
哺 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 哺?
The radical associated with 哺 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 哺?
哺 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 甫 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口甫 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 哺?
Common words with 哺 include: 哺乳动物 (bǔ rǔ dòng wù, "mammal"); 哺乳 (bǔ rǔ, "breastfeeding"); 哺育 (bǔ yù, "to feed"); 哺乳类 (bǔ rǔ lèi, "mammals"); 哺乳期 (bǔ rǔ qī, "breastfeeding period"). There are over 14 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 哺 (bǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bǔ: 捕 (to catch), 卜 ((bound form) to divine), 补 (to mend, to supplement), 不 (no), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 哺 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 哺 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.