(): (bound form) enemy, (bound form) to be a match for, to rival, (bound form) to resist, to withstand

() is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) enemy.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (semantic). It ranks #523 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, strike. Its radical form (rap) appears in many related characters such as (fàng, to put, to release), (jiào, (bound form) to teach), (shōu, to receive).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) enemy
  2. (bound form) to be a match for
  3. to rival
  4. (bound form) to resist
  5. to withstand

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticstrike

Decomposition: ⿰舌攵 (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
noundí rénenemy5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
wú díunequalled
dí yìenmity
dí jūnenemy troops
dí duìhostile
dí fāngenemy
dí jīenemy plane
shù díto antagonize people
gōng dípublic enemy
chóu díenemy
sǐ dímortal enemy
shì jūn lì dí(idiom) evenly matched
shā díto attack the enemy
suǒ xiàng wú díto be invincible
dí shìhostile
qíng dírival in love
80
Total compounds
39
As first character
49
As last character
13
As middle character

appears in 80 compound words: 39 as the first character, 49 as the last, and 13 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.

jiān
0.5795,850 co-occurrences
0.4831,458 co-occurrences
guǎ
0.4712,454 co-occurrences
0.46716,331 co-occurrences
yòu
0.4641,902 co-occurrences
duì
0.44228,632 co-occurrences
jìn
0.433954 co-occurrences
jūn
0.42325,086 co-occurrences
miè
0.4223,138 co-occurrences
0.42053,424 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (14)

dàdídāngqiánHSK 5+

to be confronted with a formidable enemy

phrase
dízhòngwǒguǎHSK 7+

to be outnumbered by one's enemy

phrase
fùkědíguóHSK 5+

rich as Croesus; extremely wealthy

phrase
fùbèishòudíHSK 7+

to be attacked from the front and rear

phrase
guǎbùdízhòngHSK 7+

to be hopelessly outnumbered; to fight against hopeless odds

phrase
huàdíwéiyǒuHSK 5+

to turn an enemy into a friend

phrase
qíféngdíshǒuHSK 7+

to be equally strong

phrase
rúlíndàdíHSK 5+

to have strict precautions; to be overly critical of the current situation

phrase
shìjūnlìdíHSK 5+

to be evenly matched

phrase
suǒxiàngwúdíHSK 5+

all-conquering; invincible wherever one goes

phrase
wàn rén zhī díHSK 5+

a match for ten thousand enemies

phrase
wú kě pǐ díHSK 5+

unsurpassed; unparalleled

phrase

Showing 12 of 14 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字由10笔画组成,结构很巧妙。

dí zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "敌" consists of ten strokes, with a remarkably ingenious structure.

UnwireFeb 2026

的士车队难网约平台 业界洽谈高德滴滴“挂单”求生

de shì chē duì nán dí wǎng yuē píng tái yè jiè qià tán gāo dé dī dī guà dān qiú shēng

The taxi fleet is difficult to compete with the online ride-hailing platform, and the industry negotiates AutoNavi Didi's "pending order" to survive

Irna ChineseFeb 2026

伊朗武装部队总参谋长:人试图以“战略消耗”动摇体制、打击民众士...

yī lǎng wǔ zhuāng bù duì zǒng cān móu cháng : dí rén shì tú yǐ zhàn lüè xiāo hào dòng yáo tǐ zhì , dǎ jī mín zhòng shì . . .

Chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces: The enemy is trying to shake the system and attack the people with "strategic attrition"...

Hk01.comFeb 2026

LUNA SEA官方公布鼓手真矢不病情离世 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

東方日報Feb 2026

“周秀娜劲”瑜伽租场发生意外 学生整亲头索5万心灵...

zhōu xiù 娜 jìn dí 瑜 伽 zū chǎng fā shēng yì wài xué shēng zhěng qīn tóu suǒ 5 wàn xīn líng . . .

"Zhou Xiuna's fierce rival" yoga rental had an accident, and the students asked for 50,000 souls...

Tatoeba

癌症是人类的大

áizhèng shì rénlèi de dà dí.

Cancer is a great enemy of humanity.

Tatoeba

方投下炸弹,把工厂炸毁了。

Dífāng tóu xià zhàdàn, bǎ gōngchǎng zhá huǐ le.

The enemy dropped bombs on the factory.

Tatoeba

熬夜是皮肤的大

áoyè shì pífū de dà dí.

Staying up late is terrible for your skin.

Tatoeba

你和汤姆是人吗?

Nǐ hé Tāngmǔ shì dírén ma?

Are you and Tom enemies?

Tatoeba

人对我们发起了攻击。

Dírén duì wǒmen fāqǐ le gōngjī.

The enemy has attacked us.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 敌 (dí) mean in Chinese?
敌 (dí) primarily means "(bound form) enemy." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #523 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 敌 have?
敌 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 敌?
The radical associated with 敌 is 攵 (rap). This radical appears in many characters related to rap.
What are the components of 敌?
敌 is composed of: 舌 (structural), 攵 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰舌攵 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 敌?
Common words with 敌 include: 敌人 (dí rén, "enemy"); 无敌 (wú dí, "unequalled"); 敌意 (dí yì, "enmity"); 敌军 (dí jūn, "enemy troops"); 敌对 (dí duì, "hostile"). There are over 80 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 敌 (dí)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dí: 滴 (to drip), 地 (earth, ground), 低 (low), 堤 (dike), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 敌 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 敌 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.