布 (bù): to announce, to spread, cloth

布 (bù) is a Chinese character meaning “to announce.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 巾 (structural). It ranks #380 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 布 cloth 巾 held in a hand. Its radical form 巾 (cloth) appears in many related characters such as 师 (shī, teacher), 帮 (bāng, to help), 常 (cháng, always).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to announce
  2. to spread
  3. cloth

Etymology & Origin

布

ideographicCloth 巾 held in a hand

Components:巾structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 布

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
宣布verbxuān bùvariant of 宣布5
发布verbfā bùvariant of 發布|发布5
公布verbgōng bùvariant of 公布5
布置verbbù zhìto arrange6
分布verbfēn bùto scatter5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
布鲁克林proper-nounbù lǔ kè línBrooklyn, borough of New York City
布鲁斯proper-nounbù lǔ sīblues (music) (loanword)
布莱恩proper-nounbù lái ēnBrian (name)
尿布nounniào bùdiaper
布朗proper-nounbù lǎng(name) Brown
布什proper-nounbù shíBush (name)
布丁nounbù dīngpudding (loanword)
发布会fā bù huìpress conference
布拉格proper-nounbù lā géPrague, capital of Czech Republic
布坎南bù kǎn nán(surname) Buchanan
散布verbsàn bùto disseminate
瀑布nounpù bùwaterfall
布道verbbù dàosermon
开诚布公phrasekāi chéng bù gōngvariant of 開誠布公|开诚布公
遍布verbbiàn bùto cover the whole (area)
119
Total compounds
44
As first character
52
As last character
4
As middle character

布 appears in 119 compound words: 44 as the first character, 52 as the last, and 4 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 布 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

宣xuān
0.680282,634 co-occurrences
瀑pù
0.55314,532 co-occurrences
颁bān
0.52316,914 co-occurrences
分fēn
0.500205,752 co-occurrences
鲁lǔ
0.48427,644 co-occurrences
朗lǎng
0.48332,916 co-occurrences
幔màn
0.46613 co-occurrences
发fā
0.459137,237 co-occurrences
拉lā
0.45578,962 co-occurrences
斯sī
0.448117,930 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (31)

布达拉宫Bùdálā GōngHSK 6+

Potala Palace (chief residence of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa)

布达佩斯BùdápèisīHSK 7+

Budapest (a city, the capital city of Hungary)

布袋和尚bù dài hé shangHSK 6+

Budai (the Laughing Budda)

phrase
布尔乔亚bù'ěrqiáoyàHSK 7+

bourgeoisie

noun
布拉萨市bù lā sà shìHSK 7+

Brazzaville, capital of Congo (Tw)

phrase
布朗克斯BùlǎngkèsīHSK 7+

the Bronx (a borough of New York City, New York, United States)

布朗运动Bùlǎng yùndòngHSK 6+

Brownian motion

noun
布里斯托bù lǐ sī tuōHSK 7+

Bristol

phrase
布列斯特BùlièsītèHSK 7+

Brest (a city in Belarus)

布隆方丹BùlóngfāngdānHSK 7+

Bloemfontein (a major city and judicial capital of South Africa)

布鲁克林BùlǔkèlínHSK 7+

Brooklyn (a borough of New York City, New York, United States)

布鲁塞尔Bùlǔsài'ěrHSK 7+

Brussels (the capital city of Belgium)

Showing 12 of 31 idioms containing 布.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习布字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

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

Mastering the art of writing characters requires repeated practice to achieve neatness.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

LUNA SEA官方公布鼓手真矢不敌病情离世 享年56岁

L U N A S E A guān fāng gōng bù gǔ shǒu zhēn shǐ bù dí bìng qíng lí shì xiǎng nián 5 6 suì

LUNA SEA officially announced that drummer Maya passed away at the age of 56

Irna ChineseFeb 2026

内塔尼亚胡宣布组建针对穆斯林的新联盟

nèi tǎ ní yà hú xuān bù zǔ jiàn zhēn duì mù sī lín de xīn lián méng

Netanyahu announced the formation of a new coalition against Muslims

EttodayFeb 2026

MG宣布“欧洲新车累积销量突破百万辆”!电动化布...

M G xuān bù ōu zhōu xīn chē lěi jī xiāo liàng tū pò bǎi wàn liàng ! diàn dòng huà bù . . .

MG announced that "the cumulative sales of new cars in Europe exceeded one million units"! Electrified cloth...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

辉达本周公布财报 营收估增67%

huī dá běn zhōu gōng bù cái bào yíng shōu gū zēng 6 7

Nvidia announced its financial report this week, with revenue estimated to increase by 67%

Tatoeba

为什么中国没有乔布斯这样的人?

Wèishénme Zhōngguó méiyǒu Qiáobùsī zhèyàng de rén?

Why doesn't China have someone like Steve Jobs?

Tatoeba

从那到布尔诺多远?

Cóng nà dào Bù'ěrnuò duō yuǎn?

How far is it to Brno?

Tatoeba

你刚刚吃了四十份布丁吗?

Nǐ gānggang chī le sì shí fèn bùdīng ma?

Did you just eat forty servings of pudding?

Tatoeba

你碰巧认识了布朗教授吗?

Nǐ pèngqiǎo rènshi le Bùlǎng jiàoshòu ma?

Do you happen to know Professor Brown?

Tatoeba

罗杰斯先生和史密斯小姐昨天宣布订婚。

Luójiésī xiānsheng hé Shǐmìsī xiǎojiě zuótiān xuānbù dìnghūn.

The engagement of Mr Rogers and Miss Smith was announced yesterday.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced bù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 布 (bù) mean in Chinese?
布 (bù) primarily means "to announce." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #380 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 布 have?
布 is written with 5 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 布?
The radical associated with 布 is 巾 (cloth). This radical appears in many characters related to cloth.
What are the components of 布?
布 is composed of: 巾 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 布?
Common words with 布 include: 宣布 (xuān bù, "variant of 宣布"); 发布 (fā bù, "variant of 發布|发布"); 公布 (gōng bù, "variant of 公布"); 布置 (bù zhì, "to arrange"); 布鲁克林 (bù lǔ kè lín, "Brooklyn, borough of New York City"). There are over 119 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 布 (bù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bù: 不 (no), 部 (ministry), 步 (a step), 补 (to mend, to supplement), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 布 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 布 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 布 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.