(dié): butterfly (in 蝴蝶)

(dié) is a Chinese character meaning “butterfly (in 蝴蝶).” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2736 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, insect. Its radical form (insect) appears in many related characters such as (chóng, insect), (, butterfly (in 蝴蝶)), (fēng, bee).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. butterfly (in 蝴蝶)

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticinsect

Decomposition: ⿰虫枼 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

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
nounhú diébutterfly5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
hú dié jiébow
dié yǒngbutterfly stroke (swimming)
zhāo fēng yǐn diélit. (of a flower) to attract bees and butterflies (idiom)
dié gǔsphenoid bone (front of the temple)
hú diévariant of 蝴蝶[hu2 die2]
dié xíng lǐng jiébow tie
dié xíng lǐng dàibow tie
dié gǔ bā tè(Tw) (loanword) decoupage
zhuāng zhōu mèng diéZhuangzi 莊子|庄子[Zhuang1 zi3] dreams of a butterfly (or is it the butterfly dreaming of Zhuangzi?)
pò jiǎn chéng diélit. to break through a cocoon and turn into a butterfly (idiom)
dié biàn(of a caterpillar etc) to metamorphose
hú dié lǐng jiébow tie
ōu dié yúplaice
dié lèibutterfly (family)
hú dié xiào yìngbutterfly effect (dynamical systems theory)
31
Total compounds
29
As first character
35
As last character
35
As middle character

appears in 31 compound words: 29 as the first character, 35 as the last, and 35 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.

0.87446,994 co-occurrences
huī
0.57313,140 co-occurrences
nòng
0.5647,416 co-occurrences
yǒng
0.56011,640 co-occurrences
chì
0.5355,004 co-occurrences
bān
0.5326,624 co-occurrences
0.5305,532 co-occurrences
fěn
0.4926,948 co-occurrences
hān
0.436216 co-occurrences
xióng
0.4267,290 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

zhāo fēng yǐn diéHSK 6+

lit. (of a flower) to attract bees and butterflies (idiom); fig. to flirt

phrase
zhuāngzhōumèngdiéHSK 6+

one is never certain whether what one sees is reality or illusion; changeable nature of human life

phrase
yuānyānghúdiéHSK 5+

mandarin ducks and butterflies (i.e. love birds); Used in reference to populist and romantic writing around 1900

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这只翅膀上的花纹非常精美,像一幅小小的画。

Zhè zhī dié chìbǎng shàng de huāwén fēicháng jīngměi, xiàng yī fú xiǎoxiǎo de huà.

The patterns on this butterfly's wings are exquisite, like a tiny painting.

UdnnewsindexApr 2026

...万安儿童节前祭育儿大礼 又要掀起全国“蝴效应”?

. . . wàn ān ér tóng jié qián jì yù ér dà lǐ yòu yāo xiān qǐ quán guó hú dié xiào yīng ?

LtnMar 2026

台语片资深女星白独居过世无人知 灵堂简陋周游鼻酸

tái yǔ piàn zī shēn nǚ xīng bái dié dú jū guò shì wú rén zhī líng táng jiǎn lòu zhōu yóu bí suān

It之家Mar 2026

神农开物:“太空蝴”破蛹展翅,我国太空生物试验取得新进展

shén nóng kāi wù : tài kōng hú dié pò 蛹 zhǎn chì , wǒ guó tài kōng shēng wù shì yàn qǔ dé xīn jìn zhǎn

Shennong Kaiwu: "Space butterfly" broke the chrysalis and spread its wings, and new progress was made in China's space biological experiments

中時新聞網Feb 2026

看大陆》深山古村变:从空心村到网红村

kàn dà lù shēn shān gǔ cūn dié biàn : cóng kōng xīn cūn dào wǎng hóng cūn

Look at the Mainland" Butterfly Change in Deep Mountain Ancient Villages: From Hollow Village to Internet Celebrity Village

百度新闻Feb 2026

3000株蝴兰凑在一起干什么?世界花卉大观园新春..

zhū 蝴 蝶 lán còu zài yī qǐ gān shén má ? shì jiè huā huì dà guàn yuán xīn chūn . .

What are 3,000 Phalaenopsis orchids doing together? World Flower Garden New Year...

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced dié

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 蝶 (dié) mean in Chinese?
蝶 (dié) primarily means "butterfly (in 蝴蝶)." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2736 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 蝶 have?
蝶 is written with 15 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 蝶?
The radical associated with 蝶 is 虫 (insect). This radical appears in many characters related to insect.
What are the components of 蝶?
蝶 is composed of: 虫 (semantic), 枼 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰虫枼 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 蝶?
Common words with 蝶 include: 蝴蝶 (hú dié, "butterfly"); 蝴蝶结 (hú dié jié, "bow"); 蝶泳 (dié yǒng, "butterfly stroke (swimming)"); 招蜂引蝶 (zhāo fēng yǐn dié, "lit. (of a flower) to attract bees and butterflies (idiom)"); 蝶骨 (dié gǔ, "sphenoid bone (front of the temple)"). There are over 31 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 蝶 (dié)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dié: 谍 (to spy), 叠 (to pile up), 碟 (plate, dish). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 蝶 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 蝶 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.