蹬 (dēng): to step on, to tread on, to put on, to wear (shoes, trousers etc), (slang) to dump (sb)

蹬 (dēng) is a Chinese character meaning “to step on.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 足 (semantic) and 登 (phonetic). It ranks #2885 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 蹬 foot. Its radical form 足 (foot) appears in many related characters such as 跑 (pǎo, to run), 跟 (gēn, follow, heel), 路 (lù, road).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to step on
  2. to tread on
  3. to put on
  4. to wear (shoes, trousers etc)
  5. (slang) to dump (sb)

Etymology & Origin

蹬

pictophoneticfoot

Decomposition: ⿰足登 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
蹬腿dēng tuǐto kick one's legs
蹬鼻子上脸phrasedēng bí zi shàng liǎnlit. to climb all over sb
蹬子dēng zipedal
蹬脚verbdēng jiǎoto stamp one's foot
脚蹬nounjiǎo dēngpedal
蹭蹬verbcèng dèng(literary) to encounter setbacks
6
Total compounds
67
As first character
33
As last character
0
As middle character

蹬 appears in 6 compound words: 67 as the first character, 33 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 蹬 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

袜wà
0.61182 co-occurrences
蹭cèng
0.60328 co-occurrences
脚jiǎo
0.493133 co-occurrences
踩cǎi
0.47326 co-occurrences
踏tà
0.47268 co-occurrences
靴xuē
0.46728 co-occurrences
跳tiào
0.456122 co-occurrences
腿tuǐ
0.45152 co-occurrences
踢tī
0.39822 co-occurrences
乌wū
0.39060 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们蹬字的发音和笔顺。

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

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

中国新闻网·生活Jun 2026

若自己坠入 尽量用脚蹬住侧壁,手扣住侧壁缝隙,使身体不再下沉,然后高声呼救。

ruò zì jǐ zhuì rù jǐn liàng yòng jiǎo dēng zhù cè bì , shǒu kòu zhù cè bì féng xì , shǐ shēn tǐ bù zài xià chén , rán hòu gāo shēng hū jiù .

If you fall in, try to brace yourself against the side wall with your feet and grip the crevices in the wall with your hands to stop yourself from sinking further, then shout for help.

中国新闻网·体育May 2026

三声倒计时结束,赵一程手抓岩点,脚蹬岩壁,快速掠过。

sān shēng dǎo jì shí jié shù , zhào yī chéng shǒu zhuā yán diǎn , jiǎo dēng yán bì , kuài sù lüè guò .

As the three-second countdown ended, Zhao Yicheng gripped the rock holds with his hands, pushed off the rock face with his feet, and swiftly glided past.

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

男主木生在泰国蹬三轮苦钱,攒一点钱就寄家去,伴随着家用的自然还有一封封书信。

nán zhǔ mù shēng zài tài guó dēng sān lún kǔ qián , cuán yī diǎn qián jiù jì jiā qù , bàn suí zhe jiā yòng de zì rán hái yǒu yī fēng fēng shū xìn .

The male protagonist, Mu Sheng, earned a meager living pedaling a rickshaw in Thailand, sending whatever money he managed to save back home—and along with his remittances, of course, came letter after letter.

爱范儿May 2026

单脚连续空翻、两步蹬墙后空翻等动作全是全球首发,街舞圈看了都得直呼祖师爷赏饭吃。

dān jiǎo lián xù kōng fān , liǎng bù dēng qiáng hòu kōng fān děng dòng zuò quán shì quán qiú shǒu fā , jiē wǔ juān kàn le dōu dé zhí hū zǔ shī yé shǎng fàn chī .

Moves like the one-legged consecutive somersault and the two-step wall-push backflip were all world premieres—even the street dance community couldn’t help but exclaim that the godfathers of the art had blessed them.

中国新闻网·体育Apr 2026

中新网 三亚4月24日电(记者 王子谦)田径比赛,讲究腿部蹬踏地面发力。

zhōng xīn wǎng sān yà 4 yuè 2 4 rì diàn ( jì zhě wáng zǐ qiān ) tián jìng bǐ sài , jiǎng jiū tuǐ bù dēng tà dì miàn fā lì .

China News Network, Sanya, April 24 (Reporter Wang Zhiqian) In track and field events, the key is to push off the ground with the legs to generate power.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 足 (foot) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced dēng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 蹬 (dēng) mean in Chinese?
蹬 (dēng) primarily means "to step on." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2885 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 蹬 and 澄?
蹬 (dēng) and 澄 (chéng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 足 vs 氵 (same 登 component).
How many strokes does 蹬 have?
蹬 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 蹬?
The radical associated with 蹬 is 足 (foot). This radical appears in many characters related to foot.
What are the components of 蹬?
蹬 is composed of: 足 (semantic), 登 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰足登 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 蹬?
Common words with 蹬 include: 蹬腿 (dēng tuǐ, "to kick one's legs"); 蹬鼻子上脸 (dēng bí zi shàng liǎn, "lit. to climb all over sb"); 蹬子 (dēng zi, "pedal"); 蹬脚 (dēng jiǎo, "to stamp one's foot"); 脚蹬 (jiǎo dēng, "pedal"). There are over 6 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 蹬 (dēng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dēng: 邓 (surname Deng), 瞪 (to stare), 凳 (bench), 等 (to wait for), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 蹬 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 蹬 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 蹬 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.