叠 (dié): to pile up, (bound form) repeated, to fold

叠 (dié) is a Chinese character meaning “to pile up.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 叒 (structural) and 冝 (structural). It ranks #2215 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 叠 clothes 叒 stacked on top of a drawer 冝. Its radical form 又 (again) appears in many related characters such as 友 (yǒu, friend), 又 (yòu, (once) again), 发 (fā, to send out).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to pile up
  2. (bound form) repeated
  3. to fold

Etymology & Origin

叠

ideographicClothes 叒 stacked on top of a drawer 冝

Decomposition: ⿱叒冝 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
折叠verbzhé diéto fold
重叠verbchóng diéto overlap
叠罗汉noundié luó hànhuman pyramid
叠加verbdié jiāto superimpose
折叠椅nounzhé dié yǐfolding chair
层叠verbcéng diélayer upon layer
肠套叠nouncháng tào diéintussusception (medicine)
层峦叠嶂phrasecéng luán dié zhàngrange upon range of mountains (idiom)
层出叠见céng chū dié xiànsee 層見疊出|层见叠出
层见叠出phrasecéng xiàn dié chū(idiom) to occur frequently
动词重叠dòng cí chóng diéverb reduplication, used to soften tone or indicate a short action (e.g. 試一試|试一试 or 看看)
态叠加tài dié jiāsuperposition of states (quantum mechanics)
三叠纪proper-nounsān dié jìTriassic (geological period 250-205m years ago)
二叠纪proper-nounèr dié jìPermian (geological period 292-250m years ago)
叠层石dié céng shístromatolite
33
Total compounds
33
As first character
33
As last character
33
As middle character

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

折zhé
0.6174,095 co-occurrences
涩sè
0.567278 co-occurrences
堆duī
0.517928 co-occurrences
层céng
0.4661,652 co-occurrences
重chóng
0.4595,614 co-occurrences
砌qì
0.433174 co-occurrences
檐yán
0.416130 co-occurrences
砖zhuān
0.398156 co-occurrences
铅qiān
0.39680 co-occurrences
韵yùn
0.386114 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

层出叠见céng chū dié xiànHSK 7+

see 層見疊出|层见叠出

phrase
层见叠出céngxiàndiéchūHSK 7+

to occur frequently; to appear repeatedly

phrase
层峦叠嶂céngluándiézhàng

peaks rising upon on another; range upon range of mountains

phrase
重峦叠嶂chóngluándiézhàng

range upon range of hills

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了解叠字的来源,有助于理解中国文化。

le xiè dié zì de lái yuán , yǒu zhù yú lǐ xiè zhōng guó wén huā .

Understanding the origins of reduplicated characters helps to comprehend Chinese culture.

LtnMar 2026

川普全球降税10%叠加MFN仍较差 产发署长:台湾失去比较优...

chuān pǔ quán qiú jiàng shuì 1 0 dié jiā M F N réng jiào chā chǎn fā shǔ cháng : tái wān shī qù bǐ jiào yōu . . .

Trump's global tax cut of 10% superimposed MFN is still poor Director of Industry and Development: Taiwan has lost its advantage...

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

...11.HK)推七年低息超长贷 海洋网全系叠加最高置换补贴2.1万人币

. . . 1 1 . H K ) tuī qī nián dī xī chāo cháng dài hǎi yáng wǎng quán xì dié jiā zuì gāo zhì huàn bǔ tiē 2 . 1 wàn rén bì

... 11.HK) Push seven years of low-interest ultra-long-term loans The entire Ocean Network system is superimposed with a maximum replacement subsidy of 21,000 yuan

InvestingFeb 2026

门店扩张叠加经营效率提升 绿茶集团预计2025年利...

mén diàn kuò zhāng dié jiā jīng yíng xiào lǜ tí shēng lǜ chá jí tuán yù jì 2 0 2 5 nián lì . . .

Store expansion and improved operating efficiency Green Tea Group expects profits in 2025...

经济观察网-首页Feb 2026

“涨价”策略失灵叠加“黑天鹅”事件,雀巢忙“瘦身”自救

zhǎng jià cè lüè shī líng dié jiā hēi tiān é shì jiàn , qiāo cháo máng shòu shēn zì jiù

The failure of the "price increase" strategy superimposed on the "black swan" incident, Nestlé was busy "slimming" to save itself

百度新闻Feb 2026

盘核桃、叠衣服、穿烤肠,银河通用春晚机器人是怎么“...

pán hé táo , dié yī fú , chuān kǎo cháng , yín hé tōng yòng chūn wǎn jī qì rén shì zěn má . . .

Plate walnuts, fold clothes, wear grilled sausages, how is the Galaxy General Spring Festival Gala robot"...

Tatoeba

“腾”和“乘”是叠韵关系。

"téng " hé "chéng " shì dié yùn guānxi.

'Teng' and 'Cheng' rhyme.

Tatoeba

喂,请问现在能给我马上送一叠稿子吗?

Wèi, qǐngwèn xiànzài néng gěi wǒ mǎshàng sòng yī dié gǎozi ma?

Hey, could you send over a stack of manuscripts straight away?

Tatoeba

房间的角落里整整齐齐地放着一叠书。

Fángjiān de jiǎoluò lǐ zhěngzhěng-qíqí de fàng zhe yī dié shū.

There was a neat pile of books in the corner of the room.

Tatoeba

汤姆把一叠信放在玛丽桌上。

Tāngmǔ bǎ yī dié xìn fàng zài Mǎlì zhuō shàng.

Tom put a stack of letters on Mary's desk.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced dié

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 叠 (dié) mean in Chinese?
叠 (dié) primarily means "to pile up." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2215 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 叠 and 下?
叠 (dié) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 叠 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 叠 have?
叠 is written with 13 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 叠?
The radical associated with 叠 is 又 (again). This radical appears in many characters related to again.
What are the components of 叠?
叠 is composed of: 叒 (structural), 冝 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱叒冝 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 叠?
Common words with 叠 include: 折叠 (zhé dié, "to fold"); 重叠 (chóng dié, "to overlap"); 叠罗汉 (dié luó hàn, "human pyramid"); 叠加 (dié jiā, "to superimpose"); 折叠椅 (zhé dié yǐ, "folding chair"). There are over 33 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 叠 (dié)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dié: 跌 (to fall), 爹 (dad), 谍 (to spy), 碟 (plate, dish), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 叠 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 叠 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 叠 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.