跌 (diē): to fall

跌 (diē) is a Chinese character meaning “to fall.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 足 (structural) and 失 (structural). It ranks #1579 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 跌 to lose 失 one's footing 足. 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 fall

Etymology & Origin

跌

ideographicTo lose 失 one's footing 足

Decomposition: ⿰足失 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
跌倒verbdiē dǎoto tumble
跌落verbdiē luòto fall
下跌verbxià diēto fall
跌跌撞撞adjectivediē die zhuàng zhuàngto stagger along
跌进diē jìnto fall into
暴跌verbbào diē(economics) to slump
狂跌kuáng diēcrazy fall (in prices)
大跌dà diēlarge fall
跌价verbdiē jiàto fall in price
跌破verbdiē pò(of a market index etc) to fall below (a given level)
猛跌měng diēdrop sharply (e.g. stock prices)
跌跤verbdiē jiāoto fall down
涨跌nounzhǎng diērise or fall in price
大跌市dà diē shì(HK) stock market crash
大跌眼镜phrasedà diē yǎn jìng(fig.) to be astounded
47
Total compounds
66
As first character
28
As last character
6
As middle character

跌 appears in 47 compound words: 66 as the first character, 28 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 跌 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

倒dǎo
0.5543,746 co-occurrences
幅fú
0.4802,683 co-occurrences
撞zhuàng
0.4711,218 co-occurrences
涨zhǎng
0.465282 co-occurrences
落luò
0.4593,316 co-occurrences
下xià
0.4429,534 co-occurrences
暴bào
0.4351,723 co-occurrences
股gǔ
0.4201,668 co-occurrences
慎shèn
0.413392 co-occurrences
崖yá
0.412284 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

大跌眼镜dàdiēyǎnjìngHSK 6+

to have one's jaws drop (often in a bad way); to be greatly surprised or astonished; to be dumbfounded

phrase
跌打损伤diēdǎsǔnshāngHSK 6+

fractures or other injuries from falls, blows, contusions, sprains and so on; all musculoskeletal injuries

phrase
跌宕昭彰diē dàng zhāo zhāng

flowing (of prose); free

phrase
跌跌撞撞diēdiēzhuàngzhuàngHSK 6+

doddering; tottering; faltering; rash; reckless; staggering along in life

adjective
跌脚捶胸diē jiǎo chuí xiōngHSK 7+

lit. stamping and beating the chest (idiom); fig. angry or stressed about sth

phrase
跌破眼镜diē pò yǎn jìngHSK 6+

(fig.) to be astounded

phrase
跌至谷底diē zhì gǔ dǐHSK 7+

to hit rock bottom (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他在楼梯上跌倒了,扭伤了脚踝。

Tā zài lóutī shang diēdǎo le, niǔshāng le jiǎohuái.

He fell on the stairs and sprained his ankle.

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

惠理:金价跌返4900水平可吸

huì lǐ : jīn jià diē fǎn 4 9 0 0 shuǐ píng kě xī

Value Partners: The price of gold can be absorbed when it falls back to the 4900 level

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Feb 2026

盘中速报 - Ethena大跌8.31%,报0.1美元

pán zhōng sù bào E t h e n a dà diē 8 . 3 1 , bào 0 . 1 měi yuán

Intraday Express - Ethena fell 8.31% to $0.1

InvestingFeb 2026

...enerali第四季度业绩创纪录但股价下跌

. . . e n e r a l i dì sì jì dù yè jì chuàng jì lù dàn gǔ jià xià diē

... Enerali posted record fourth-quarter results but shares fell

百度新闻Feb 2026

洲际交易所伦敦可可期货下跌近6%,至每吨2328英..

zhōu jì jiāo yì suǒ lún dūn kě kě qī huò xià diē jìn , zhì měi dūn yīng . .

Cocoa futures on the Intercontinental Exchange in London fell nearly 6 percent to 2,328 British pounds a ton....

百度新闻Feb 2026

拜耳股价在法兰克福下跌5.8%

bài ěr gǔ jiè zài fǎ lán kè fú xià diē .

Bayer shares fall 5.8% in Frankfurt

Tatoeba

股票价格跌至历史新低。

Gǔpiào jiàgé diēzhì lìshǐ xīn dī.

Stock prices plunged to a record low.

Tatoeba

在第三季时销售跌了下来。

Zài dì sān jì shí xiāoshòu diē le xiàlai.

Sales fell off in the third quarter.

Tatoeba

当更多的纸币投入使用,价格就下跌了。

Dāng gèng duō de zhǐbì tóurù shǐyòng, jiàgé jiù xiàdiē le.

As more paper money came into use, the value fell.

Tatoeba

新生的长颈鹿摇晃着腿跌跌撞撞地走。

Xīnshēng de chángjǐnglù yáohuàng zhe tuǐ diēdiezhuàngzhuàng de zǒu.

The newborn giraffe stumbled around on rickety legs.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced diē

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 跌 (diē) mean in Chinese?
跌 (diē) primarily means "to fall." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1579 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 跌 and 起?
跌 (diē) and 起 (qǐ) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 跌 (fall) vs 起 (rise).
How many strokes does 跌 have?
跌 is written with 12 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 跌?
The radical associated with 跌 is 足 (foot). This radical appears in many characters related to foot.
What are the components of 跌?
跌 is composed of: 足 (structural), 失 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰足失 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 跌?
Common words with 跌 include: 跌倒 (diē dǎo, "to tumble"); 跌落 (diē luò, "to fall"); 下跌 (xià diē, "to fall"); 跌跌撞撞 (diē die zhuàng zhuàng, "to stagger along"); 跌进 (diē jìn, "to fall into"). There are over 47 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 跌 (diē)?
Several characters share the pronunciation diē: 爹 (dad), 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 跌 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 跌 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 跌 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.