(): ministry, department, section

() is a Chinese character meaning “ministry.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #84 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, place. Its radical form (mound) appears in many related characters such as (, (specifier) that), (dōu, all), (yuàn, courtyard).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. ministry
  2. department
  3. section

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticplace

Decomposition: ⿰咅阝 (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

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounbù fenpart4
nounquán bùwhole4
nounjù lè bù(loanword) club (the organization or its premises)6
nounbù méndepartment4
bù duìarmy6
nounnèi bùinterior5
nounzǒng bùgeneral headquarters5
西nounxī bùwestern part4
nounnán bùsouthern part4
nounběi bùnorthern part4
nounmiàn bùface (body part)6
noundōng bùthe east4
nounbù wèipart (esp. of the body, but also of a vegetable, e.g. the root, or a garment, e.g. the sleeve, etc)6
nounwài bùthe outside5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
bù luòtribe
dà bù fenthe greater part
xiōng bùchest
bù zhǎnghead of a (government etc) department
tóu bùhead
tún bùbutt
guó fáng bùDefense Department
liǎn bùface
zhōng bùmiddle part
fù bùabdomen
bù shǔto dispose
dǐ bùbottom
bèi bùback (of a human or other vertebrate, or of an object)
bù xiàtroops under one's command
bù jiànpart
100
Total compounds
21
As first character
72
As last character
7
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 21 as the first character, 72 as the last, and 7 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.

liàn
0.703904,170 co-occurrences
wài
0.6782,811,540 co-occurrences
fēn
0.6222,711,706 co-occurrences
0.617386,626 co-occurrences
jiē
0.5471,007,340 co-occurrences
běi
0.505925,374 co-occurrences
0.50496,522 co-occurrences
nán
0.500936,234 co-occurrences
cháng
0.493653,130 co-occurrences
fèn
0.484421,554 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

ànbùjiùbānHSK 4+

to do something in an orderly manner; to follow the prescribed order; to keep to the conventional ways

phrase
hù bù shàng shūHSK 6+

Minister of Revenue (from the Han dynasty onwards)

phrase
lǐ bù shàng shūHSK 6+

Director of Board of Rites (Confucian)

phrase
nán shàn bù zhōuHSK 7+

Jambudvipa

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men bù zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "部."

東方日報Feb 2026

美国突在约旦军事基地 署大量战机

měi guó tū zài yuē dàn jūn shì jī dì bù shǔ dà liàng zhàn jī

The United States suddenly deployed a large number of fighter jets at Jordanian military bases

東方日報Feb 2026

...困晴空塔升降机长达5个半小时 约20人全获救

. . . kùn qíng kōng tǎ shēng jiàng jī cháng dá 5 gè bàn xiǎo shí yuē 2 0 rén quán bù huò jiù

... The Skytree elevator was trapped for five and a half hours, and all about 20 people were rescued

百度新闻Feb 2026

美国向联合国支付1.6亿美元分欠款,仅为其约20..

měi guó xiàng lián gě guó zhī fù 1 . 6 yì měi yuán bù fēn qiàn kuǎn , jǐn wéi qí yuē 2 0 . .

The United States pays part of its $160 million arrears to the United Nations, only about 20 percent.

百度新闻Feb 2026

存储概念股普涨 西数据(WDC.US)涨逾3%

cún chǔ gài niàn gǔ pǔ zhǎng xī bù shǔ jù ( W D C . U S ) zhǎng yú 3

Storage concept stocks rose across Western Digital (WDC. US) rose more than 3%

百度新闻Feb 2026

也门安全队向反政府示威者开火 造成至少12人伤亡

yě mén ān quán bù duì xiàng fǎn zhèng fǔ shì wēi zhě kāi huǒ zào chéng zhì shǎo 1 2 rén shāng wáng

Yemeni security forces opened fire on anti-government demonstrators, killing at least 12 people

Tatoeba

加入我们的俱乐吗?

Jiārù wǒmen de jùlèbù ma?

Will you join our club?

Tatoeba

你有没有看过那电影?

Nǐ yǒuméiyǒu kàn guo nà bù diànyǐng?

Did you ever see that movie?

Tatoeba

您隶属哪家俱乐吗?

Nín lìshǔ nǎ jiājù lè bù ma?

Do you belong to any clubs?

Tatoeba

你觉得这新电影怎样?

Nǐ juéde zhè bù xīn diànyǐng zěnyàng?

What do you think of the new movie?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 部 (bù) mean in Chinese?
部 (bù) primarily means "ministry." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #84 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 部 and 培?
部 (bù) and 培 (péi) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 阝 vs 土 (same 咅 component).
How many strokes does 部 have?
部 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 部?
The radical associated with 部 is 阝 (mound). This radical appears in many characters related to mound.
What are the components of 部?
部 is composed of: 咅 (phonetic), 阝 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰咅阝 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 部?
Common words with 部 include: 部分 (bù fen, "part"); 全部 (quán bù, "whole"); 俱乐部 (jù lè bù, "(loanword) club (the organization or its premises)"); 部落 (bù luò, "tribe"); 部门 (bù mén, "department"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 部 (bù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bù: 卜 ((bound form) to divine), 补 (to mend, to supplement), 哺 (to feed), 捕 (to catch). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 部 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 部 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.