爹 (diē): dad

爹 (diē) is a Chinese character meaning “dad.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 父 (semantic) and 多 (phonetic). It ranks #1976 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 爹 father. Its radical form 父 (father) appears in many related characters such as 爷 (yé, grandpa), 爸 (bà, father), 父 (fù, father).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. dad

Etymology & Origin

爹

pictophoneticfather

Decomposition: ⿱父多 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
老爹nounlǎo diē(dialect) father
爹地noundiē dìdaddy (loanword)
爹爹noundiē diedaddy
爹娘noundiē niáng(dialect) parents
阿爹nounā diēdad
干爹noungān diēadoptive father (traditional adoption, i.e. without legal ramifications)
喜当爹verbxǐ dāng diē(neologism c. 2012) (slang) to become a stepfather when one's partner turns out to be pregnant with a child she conce...
公爹noungōng diēhusband's father
亲爹qīn diēbiological father
野爹yě diē(vulgar) a man sb's mother has an affair with
沙爹nounshā diēsatay (sauce)
姑爹noungū diēhusband of father's sister
糖爹nountáng diē(slang) sugar daddy
沙爹酱shā diē jiàngsatay sauce
拼爹verbpīn diē(slang) to rely on one's father's wealth or prestige to get ahead
16
Total compounds
19
As first character
75
As last character
6
As middle character

爹 appears in 16 compound words: 19 as the first character, 75 as the last, and 6 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 爹 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

老lǎo
0.5442,446 co-occurrences
娘niáng
0.451248 co-occurrences
吹chuī
0.443182 co-occurrences
刁diāo
0.41428 co-occurrences
爸bà
0.39594 co-occurrences
吓xià
0.39422 co-occurrences
牛niú
0.392208 co-occurrences
猫māo
0.38754 co-occurrences
咱zán
0.38410 co-occurrences
胖pàng
0.36426 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

爹爹教我骑自行车,耐心地扶着车尾跑。

Diēdie jiāo wǒ qí zìxíngchē, nàixīn de fúzhe chē wěi pǎo.

Dad taught me to ride a bicycle, patiently holding the back of the bike as he ran.

爱范儿Aug 2026

更糟糕的是,A 社自己也清楚这一点,并由此养成了一个非常恶劣的习惯:喜欢当用户的爹。

gēng zāo gāo de shì , A shè zì jǐ yě qīng chǔ zhè yī diǎn , bìng yóu cǐ yǎng chéng le yī gè fēi cháng è liè de xí guàn : xǐ huān dāng yòng hù de diē .

To make matters worse, Studio A is well aware of this itself, and as a result has developed a very bad habit: it likes to act like the users' father.

中国新闻网·文化Jun 2026

《第四幕》与《我阿爹想旅行》均为香港“薪火相传计划”的扶持作品。

dì sì mù yǔ wǒ ā diē xiǎng lǚ háng jūn wéi xiāng gǎng xīn huǒ xiāng chuán jì huá de fú chí zuò pǐn .

Both *Act IV* and *My Dad Wants to Travel* are productions supported by Hong Kong’s “Passing the Torch” initiative.

爱范儿Jun 2026

改头换面!宾利发布新一代飞驰,顺便去了下身上的“爹味”

gǎi tóu huàn miàn ! bīn lì fā bù xīn yī dài fēi chí , shùn biàn qù le xià shēn shàng de diē wèi

A Complete Makeover! Bentley Unveils the Next-Generation Flying Spur—and Shakes Off Its “Dad Car” Image in the Process

少数派May 2026

他说自己再忙儿子都快不认他这个爹了,所以他选择放弃了个人资源的大部分应酬。

tā shuō zì jǐ zài máng ér zǐ dōu kuài bù rèn tā zhè gè diē le , suǒ yǐ tā xuǎn zé fàng qì le gè rén zī yuán de dà bù fēn yīng chóu .

He said that no matter how busy he was, his son was on the verge of no longer recognizing him as his father, so he chose to give up most of the social engagements that required him to use his personal connections.

新西兰中文先驱网Mar 2026

...都发生了关系! 生完娃之后懵圈了:谁是亲爹?!DNA都一样!

. . . dōu fā shēng le guān xì ! shēng wán wá zhī hòu 懵 juān le : shéi shì qīn diē ? ! D N A dōu yī yàng !

...They've all slept with her! After the baby was born, she was completely baffled: Who's the real dad?! The DNA matches!

Tatoeba

爹地喜欢讲有趣的事。

Diēdì xǐhuan jiǎng yǒuqù de shì.

Daddy loves to say funny things.

Tatoeba

我一哥们儿他爹是变戏法的。

Wǒ yī gēmenr tā diē shì biànxìfǎ de.

I have a friend whose father is a magician.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 父 (father) component

父 Radical Family — Characters sharing the father radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced diē

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 爹 (diē) mean in Chinese?
爹 (diē) primarily means "dad." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1976 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 爹 and 哆?
爹 (diē) and 哆 (duō) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 父 vs 口 (same 多 component).
How many strokes does 爹 have?
爹 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 爹?
The radical associated with 爹 is 父 (father). This radical appears in many characters related to father.
What are the components of 爹?
爹 is composed of: 父 (semantic), 多 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱父多 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 爹?
Common words with 爹 include: 老爹 (lǎo diē, "(dialect) father"); 爹地 (diē dì, "daddy (loanword)"); 爹爹 (diē die, "daddy"); 爹娘 (diē niáng, "(dialect) parents"); 阿爹 (ā diē, "dad"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 爹 (diē)?
Several characters share the pronunciation diē: 跌 (to fall), 谍 (to spy), 叠 (to pile up), 碟 (plate, dish), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 爹 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 爹 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 爹 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.