迭 (dié): alternately, repeatedly

迭 (dié) is a Chinese character meaning “alternately.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 辶 (semantic) and 失 (phonetic). It ranks #2755 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 迭 walk. Its radical form 辶 (walk) appears in many related characters such as 边 (biān, side), 过 (guò, to pass, past), 还 (hái, still, return).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. alternately
  2. repeatedly

Etymology & Origin

迭

pictophoneticwalk

Decomposition: ⿺辶失 (layout: surround-from-lower-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
高潮迭起gāo cháo dié qǐeach new high point replaced by another
更迭verbgēng diéto alternate
忙不迭adverbmáng bù diéhurriedly
迭起verbdié qǐcontinuously arising
叫苦不迭phrasejiào kǔ bu diéto complain without stopping (idiom)
层见迭出céng xiàn dié chūvariant of 層見疊出|层见叠出
后悔不迭hòu huǐ bù diétoo late for regrets
三迭纪sān dié jìvariant of 三疊紀|三叠纪
苦迭打nounkǔ dié dǎ(loanword) coup d'état
二迭纪èr dié jìvariant of 二疊紀|二叠纪
不迭verbbù diécannot cope
迭部县dié bù xiànTêwo, a county in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture 甘南藏族自治州, Gansu
迭部proper-noundié bùsee 迭部縣|迭部县
重迭chóng diévariant of 重疊|重叠
苦迭塔nounkǔ dié tǎ(loanword) coup d'état
18
Total compounds
22
As first character
39
As last character
39
As middle character

迭 appears in 18 compound words: 22 as the first character, 39 as the last, and 39 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 迭 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

戈gē
0.5822,310 co-occurrences
闻wén
0.52810 co-occurrences
益yì
0.49710 co-occurrences
圣shèng
0.445902 co-occurrences
代dài
0.4434,413 co-occurrences
更gèng
0.4402,210 co-occurrences
迷mí
0.430612 co-occurrences
模mó
0.42411 co-occurrences
营yíng
0.40911 co-occurrences
型xíng
0.37610 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

层见迭出céng xiàn dié chūHSK 7+

variant of 層見疊出|层见叠出

phrase
高潮迭起gāo cháo dié qǐHSK 7+

each new high point replaced by another; (of a movie etc) one climax after another

phrase
叫苦不迭jiàokǔbùdiéHSK 7+

to complain of one's suffering endlessly

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好迭字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

xiě hǎo dié zì xū yāo zhǎng wò zhēng què de bǐ huà shùn xù .

To write compound characters correctly, one must master the proper stroke order.

The Beijing NewsMar 2026

小鹅通产品功能迭代更新:以全链路优化助力商家经营效率提升

xiǎo é tōng chǎn pǐn gōng néng dié dài gēng xīn : yǐ quán liàn lù yōu huà zhù lì shāng jiā jīng yíng xiào lǜ tí shēng

Xiaoetong Product Feature Updates: Enhancing Business Efficiency Through End-to-End Optimization

NewtalkMar 2026

美连翻主导“政权更迭”令北京高度警觉 伊朗战火为川习峰会添阴...

měi lián fān zhǔ dǎo zhèng quán gēng dié lìng běi jīng gāo dù jǐng jué yī lǎng zhàn huǒ wéi chuān xí fēng huì tiān yīn . . .

The United States has repeatedly led the "regime change" to make Beijing highly alert The Iranian war has added gloom to the Trump-Xi summit...

Investing 香港Mar 2026

...冲突导致成本上行 AWE将至关注黑电技术迭代

. . . chōng tū dǎo zhì chéng běn shàng háng A W E jiāng zhì guān zhù hēi diàn jì shù dié dài

... Conflict leads to rising costs AWE will pay attention to the iteration of black electricity technology

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

川普政府逆转立场鼓动伊朗政权更迭 外媒:恐带来更多风险

chuān pǔ zhèng fǔ nì zhuǎn lì chǎng gǔ dòng yī lǎng zhèng quán gēng dié wài méi : kǒng dài lái gēng duō fēng xiǎn

The Trump administration reversed its position and encouraged regime change in Iran Foreign media: It may bring more risks

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

...K)澄清AI替代传闻:主营业务受益大模型迭代,前三季度收入增36.8%-FX168

. . . K ) chéng qīng A I tì dài chuán wén : zhǔ yíng yè wù shòu yì dà mó xíng dié dài , qián sān jì dù shōu rù zēng 3 6 . 8 F X 1 6 8

... K) clarified the rumors of AI substitution: the main business benefited from the iteration of large models, and revenue increased by 36.8% in the first three quarters - FX168

Tatoeba

惠子巧妙地把碗碟迭起再拿到水槽。

Huì zǐ qiǎomiàodi bǎ wǎn dié diéqǐ zài ná dào shuǐcáo.

Keiko deftly piles up the dishes and takes them to the sink.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 辶 (walk) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced dié

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 迭 (dié) mean in Chinese?
迭 (dié) primarily means "alternately." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2755 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 迭 and 铁?
迭 (dié) and 铁 (tiě) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 辶 vs 钅 (same 失 component).
How many strokes does 迭 have?
迭 is written with 8 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 迭?
The radical associated with 迭 is 辶 (walk). This radical appears in many characters related to walk.
What are the components of 迭?
迭 is composed of: 辶 (semantic), 失 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿺辶失 with a surround-from-lower-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 迭?
Common words with 迭 include: 高潮迭起 (gāo cháo dié qǐ, "each new high point replaced by another"); 更迭 (gēng dié, "to alternate"); 忙不迭 (máng bù dié, "hurriedly"); 迭起 (dié qǐ, "continuously arising"); 叫苦不迭 (jiào kǔ bu dié, "to complain without stopping (idiom)"). There are over 18 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 迭 (dié)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dié: 跌 (to fall), 爹 (dad), 谍 (to spy), 叠 (to pile up), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 迭 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 迭 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 迭 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.