顶 (dǐng): apex, crown of the head, top

顶 (dǐng) is a Chinese character meaning “apex.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 丁 (phonetic) and 页 (semantic). It ranks #999 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 顶 head. Its radical form 页 (page) appears in many related characters such as 页 (yè, page), 顺 (shùn, to obey), 须 (xū, must).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. apex
  2. crown of the head
  3. top

Etymology & Origin

顶

pictophonetichead

Decomposition: ⿰丁页 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 顶

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
山顶nounshān dǐnghilltop6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
屋顶nounwū dǐngroof
顶级adjectivedǐng jítop-notch
顶尖noundǐng jiānpeak
房顶nounfáng dǐnghousetop
透顶adverbtòu dǐngout-and-out
楼顶nounlóu dǐngtop of a building
头顶nountóu dǐngtop of the head
顶楼noundǐng lóutop floor
顶端noundǐng duānsummit
顶层noundǐng céngtop floor
顶住verbdǐng zhùto withstand
顶嘴verbdǐng zuǐto talk back
顶峰noundǐng fēngpeak
顶替verbdǐng tìto replace
顶多adverbdǐng duōat most
100
Total compounds
60
As first character
35
As last character
5
As middle character

顶 appears in 100 compound words: 60 as the first character, 35 as the last, and 5 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 顶 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

檐yán
0.5902,578 co-occurrences
攒cuán
0.552454 co-occurrences
尖jiān
0.5234,860 co-occurrences
圆yuán
0.5213,700 co-occurrences
屋wū
0.51811,494 co-occurrences
拱gǒng
0.5082,092 co-occurrences
歇xiē
0.5062,076 co-occurrences
坝bà
0.4671,348 co-occurrences
峰fēng
0.4655,496 co-occurrences
窿lóng
0.463158 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

顶礼膜拜dǐnglǐmóbàiHSK 7+

to piously prostrate and worship; to worship somebody with great respect

phrase
顶门壮户dǐng mén zhuàng hùHSK 6+

to support the family business (idiom)

phrase
顶名冒姓dǐng míng mào xìngHSK 6+

to pretend to be sb else

phrase
顶头上司dǐng tóu shàng siHSK 6+

one's immediate superior

phrase
冒名顶替màomíngdǐngtìHSK 6+

to impersonate; pretend to be someone

phrase
灭顶之灾mièdǐngzhīzāiHSK 6+

devastating catastrophe

phrase
摩顶放踵módǐngfàngzhǒngHSK 6+

to dedicate oneself completely to the welfare of mankind

phrase
醍醐灌顶tíhúguàndǐngHSK 7+

to enlighten someone with wisdom for achieving nirvana; to inspire someone with insightful words

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

山顶的风景最美,值得爬上去一看。

Shāndǐng de fēngjǐng zuì měi, zhíde pá shàngqù yī kàn.

The scenery at the mountaintop is the most beautiful and worth climbing up to see.

EttodayFeb 2026

密宗灌顶变性骚! 佛大硕生被仁波切狂摸下体:在吸...

mì zōng guàn dǐng biàn xìng sāo ! fó dà shuò shēng bèi rén bō qiē kuáng mō xià tǐ : zài xī . . .

Tantric empowerment transsexuality! Buddha University master was touched by Rinpoche's lower body: sucking...

WorldjournalFeb 2026

冬奥/男子4人雪车洛赫纳再登顶 马尔吉斯创5金纪录

dōng ào nán zǐ 4 rén xuě chē 洛 hè nà zài dēng dǐng mǎ ěr jí sī chuàng 5 jīn jì lù

Winter Olympics/Men's 4-man bobsleigh, Lochner reached the top again, and Margis set a 5-gold record

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

斗湖1小时豪雨引发大水患 轿车险灭顶多路中断

dǒu hú 1 xiǎo shí háo yǔ yǐn fā dà shuǐ huàn jiào chē xiǎn miè dǐng duō lù zhōng duàn

Tawau 1-hour heavy rain caused heavy flooding, and the car was almost destroyed, and many roads were interrupted

百度新闻Feb 2026

阿福上春晚后爆火登顶AppStore:这4个宝藏用..

ā fú shǎng chūn wǎn hòu bào huǒ dēng dǐng zhè gě bǎo zàng yòng . .

Afu on the Spring Festival Gala after the explosion of fire topped the AppStore: these 4 treasures with...

百度新闻Feb 2026

大年初一,浙大发顶刊论文:用人工智能为膜蛋白造“装..

dà nián chū yī , zhè dà fā dǐng kān lún wén yòng rén gōng zhì néng wéi mó dàn bái zào zhuāng . .

On New Year's Day, Zhejiang University publishes top-tier journal paper: Using AI to "dress" membrane proteins...

Tatoeba

汤姆把头撞到车顶了。

Tāng mǔ bǎtóu zhuàngdào chē dǐng le.

Tom bumped his head on the roof of the car.

Tatoeba

保林娜有顶粉帽子。

Bǎolínnà yǒu dǐng fěn màozi.

Paulina has a pink cap.

Tatoeba

那幢绿色屋顶的建筑是什么?

Nà zhuàng lǜsè wūdǐng de jiànzhù shì shénme?

What is that building with the green roof?

Tatoeba

汤姆是个顶好的厨师,这没错吧?

Tāngmǔ shì gè dǐng hǎo de chúshī, zhè méi cuò ba?

Tom is an excellent cook, isn't he?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 页 (head) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced dǐng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 顶 (dǐng) mean in Chinese?
顶 (dǐng) primarily means "apex." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #999 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 顶 and 打?
顶 (dǐng) and 打 (dǎ) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 页 vs 扌 (same 丁 component).
How many strokes does 顶 have?
顶 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 顶?
The radical associated with 顶 is 页 (page). This radical appears in many characters related to page.
What are the components of 顶?
顶 is composed of: 丁 (phonetic), 页 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰丁页 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 顶?
Common words with 顶 include: 屋顶 (wū dǐng, "roof"); 顶级 (dǐng jí, "top-notch"); 顶尖 (dǐng jiān, "peak"); 房顶 (fáng dǐng, "housetop"); 透顶 (tòu dǐng, "out-and-out"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 顶 (dǐng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dǐng: 订 (to agree), 盯 (to stare at), 叮 (to sting or bite (of mosquito, bee etc)), 定 (to decide, fixed), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 顶 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 顶 and the traditional form is 頂.

Practice writing 顶 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.