袋 (dài): bag, pocket

袋 (dài) is a Chinese character meaning “bag, pocket.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 代 (phonetic) and 衣 (semantic). It ranks #1302 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 袋 clothes. Its radical form 衤 (clothing) appears in many related characters such as 衣 (yī, clothing), 表 (biǎo, exterior surface), 装 (zhuāng, dress, install).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. bag, pocket

Etymology & Origin

袋

pictophoneticclothes

Decomposition: ⿱代衣 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 袋

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
脑袋nounnǎo daihead6
口袋nounkǒu dàipocket5
袋子noundài zibag4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
塑料袋nounsù liào dàiplastic bag
袋鼠noundài shǔkangaroo
睡袋nounshuì dàisleeping bag
沙袋nounshā dàisandbag
麻袋nounmá dàisack
纸袋nounzhǐ dàipaper bag
冰袋nounbīng dàiice bag
眼袋nounyǎn dàipuffiness under the eyes
行李袋xíng li dàitravel bag
钱袋nounqián dàiwallet
衣袋nounyī dàipocket (in a garment)
旅行袋lǚ xíng dàitravel bag
热水袋nounrè shuǐ dàihot-water bottle
育儿袋nounyù ér dàimarsupial pouch
烟袋nounyān dàitobacco pipe
72
Total compounds
7
As first character
67
As last character
26
As middle character

袋 appears in 72 compound words: 7 as the first character, 67 as the last, and 26 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 袋 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

蹲dūn
0.60111 co-occurrences
池chí
0.5705,604 co-occurrences
鼠shǔ
0.5232,763 co-occurrences
绯fēi
0.501164 co-occurrences
塑sù
0.479963 co-occurrences
垃lā
0.453446 co-occurrences
圾jī
0.452436 co-occurrences
棍gùn
0.450424 co-occurrences
脑nǎo
0.446730 co-occurrences
布bù
0.4446,792 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

布袋和尚bù dài hé shangHSK 6+

Budai (the Laughing Budda)

phrase
酒囊饭袋jiǔ náng fàn dàiHSK 7+

wine sack, food bag (idiom); useless person, only fit for guzzling and boozing

phrase
口袋妖怪Kǒudài YāoguàiHSK 7+

Pokémon

榆木脑袋yú mù nǎo daiHSK 5+

(coll.) thickhead; (coll.) thick skull (i.e. the brain of a thickhead)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请把垃圾装进袋子里,不要随地乱扔。

Qǐng bǎ lājī zhuāng jìn dàizi lǐ, búyào suídì luàn rēng.

Please put garbage in bags; don't litter.

中時新聞網Feb 2026

瞄准WBC热潮 乖乖限量应援袋登场

miáo zhǔn W B C rè cháo guāi guāi xiàn liàng yīng yuán dài dēng chǎng

Aiming at the WBC craze, obediently limited support bags appeared

StheadlineFeb 2026

尿袋新监管!内地3月起增设行动电源新“3C”...

niào dài xīn jiān guǎn ! nèi dì 3 yuè qǐ zēng shè háng dòng diàn yuán xīn 3 C . . .

New supervision of urine bags! The mainland has added a new "3C" of mobile power since March...

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...!藝人中獎祕訣曝光 1號碼至少6000入袋

. . . ! 藝 rén zhōng 獎 祕 訣 pù guāng 號 碼 zhì shǎo rù dài

...! Celebrity Lottery Winning Secrets Revealed: Number 1 Yields at Least $6,000

LtnFeb 2026

怕發福?蕭美琴發福袋順便「練深蹲」 網讚:誠懇就在細節裡

pà 發 fú ? 蕭 měi qín 發 fú dài 順 biàn 練 shēn cún 網 讚 誠 懇 jiù zài 細 節 裡

Worried about gaining weight? Hsiao Mei-chin hands out red envelopes while "practicing squats" Netizens praise: Sincerity is in the details

三立新聞網Feb 2026

發福袋一蹲再蹲!蕭美琴笑曝:順便練深蹲

發 fú dài yī cún zài cún ! 蕭 měi qín xiào pù 順 biàn 練 shēn cún

Squatting again and again with the lucky money bags! Hsiao Mei-chin jokes: "Might as well practice my squats while I'm at it."

Tatoeba

汤姆把钥匙拿出了口袋。

Tāngmǔ bǎ yàoshi náchū le kǒudài.

Tom took his keys out of his pocket.

Tatoeba

我拒绝使用塑料袋。

Wǒ jùjué shǐyòng sùliàodài.

I refuse to use plastic bags.

Tatoeba

男子从口袋中掏出枪,吓了我一跳。

Nánzǐ cóng kǒudài zhōng tāochū qiāng, xià le wǒ yī tiào.

To my horror, the man took a gun out of his pocket.

Tatoeba

他从他外套内袋里拿出皮夹。

Tā cóng tā wàitào nèidài lǐ náchū píjiā.

He took out the wallet from his inside jacket pocket.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 衣 (clothes) component

衤 Radical Family — Characters sharing the clothing radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced dài

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 袋 (dài) mean in Chinese?
袋 (dài) primarily means "bag, pocket." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1302 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 袋 have?
袋 is written with 11 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 袋?
The radical associated with 袋 is 衤 (clothing). This radical appears in many characters related to clothing.
What are the components of 袋?
袋 is composed of: 代 (phonetic), 衣 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱代衣 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 袋?
Common words with 袋 include: 脑袋 (nǎo dai, "head"); 口袋 (kǒu dài, "pocket"); 袋子 (dài zi, "bag"); 塑料袋 (sù liào dài, "plastic bag"); 袋鼠 (dài shǔ, "kangaroo"). There are over 72 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 袋 (dài)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dài: 贷 (loan), 岱 (Mt Tai in Shandong), 代 (to be a substitute for), 带 (band), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 袋 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 袋 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 袋 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.