(dīng): to sting or bite (of mosquito, bee etc), to say repeatedly, to urge insistently

(dīng) is a Chinese character meaning “to sting or bite (of mosquito, bee etc).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2500 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, mouth. Its radical form (mouth) appears in many related characters such as (kǒu, mouth), (jiào, to call, to be called), (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to sting or bite (of mosquito, bee etc)
  2. to say repeatedly
  3. to urge insistently

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口丁 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
dīng dāng(onom.) ding dong
dīng dōng(onom.) ding dong
dīng dīng dāng dāng(onom.) ding dong
dīng zhǔto warn repeatedly
dīng níngto warn
bàn píng shuǐ xiǎng dīng dānglit. if you tap a half-empty bottle it makes a sound (idiom)
dīng dāng shēngtinkle
dīng dāng xiǎng(onom.) ding dong
xiǎng dīng dāngto tinkle
dīng wènto question closely
cāng ying bù dīng wú fèng dànlit. flies do not attack an intact egg (idiom)
qiān dīng wàn zhǔrepeatedly urging
dīng yǎosting
dīng dīng māo(dialect) dragonfly
dīng língjingle
16
Total compounds
75
As first character
0
As last character
25
As middle character

appears in 16 compound words: 75 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 25 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.

yǎo
0.6422,604 co-occurrences
zhǔ
0.625966 co-occurrences
wén
0.588918 co-occurrences
lóng
0.45848 co-occurrences
yíng
0.43878 co-occurrences
líng
0.427162 co-occurrences
chóng
0.406294 co-occurrences
dāng
0.3851,914 co-occurrences
fēng
0.373180 co-occurrences
kūn
0.348216 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

dīng dīng dāng dāngHSK 7+

(onom.) ding dong; jingling of bells; clanking sound

phrase
qiān dīng wàn zhǔHSK 7+

repeatedly urging; imploring over and over again

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

下这杯茶,解解渴再继续工作。

qǐng dīng xià zhè bēi chá , xiè xiè kě zài jì xù gōng zuò .

Please pour yourself a cup of tea to quench your thirst before getting back to work.

StheadlineMar 2026

...渣 网民齐爆糟蹋贵价食材惨案|Juicy

. . . zhā wǎng mín qí bào zāo tà guì jià shí cái cǎn àn J u i c y dīng

...Netizens Slam the Tragedy of Wasting Expensive Ingredients | Juicy Ding

東森新聞Mar 2026

...八脚怪!国内第3例SFTS本土病例 男遭咬感染

. . . bā jiǎo guài ! guó nèi dì 3 lì S F T S běn tǔ bìng lì nán zāo dīng yǎo gǎn rǎn

...Eight-legged monster! China's third locally transmitted case of SFTS: Man infected after being bitten

StheadlineMar 2026

...降机 网民轰做法危险害人害己|Juicy

. . . jiàng jī wǎng mín hōng zuò fǎ wēi xiǎn hài rén hài jǐ J u i c y dīng

... Landing netizens bombard the practice of dangerous harm to others and themselves| Juicy ding

StheadlineFeb 2026

...爆月入万零花7年储$100万|Juicy

. . . bào yuè rù wàn líng huā 7 nián chǔ 1 0 0 wàn J u i c y dīng

... Explosive monthly income of 10,000 yuan and 7 years of savings of $1 million| Juicy ding

StheadlineFeb 2026

...传后传 网民忆凶案旧事觉心寒|Juicy

. . . chuán hòu chuán wǎng mín yì xiōng àn jiù shì jué xīn hán J u i c y dīng

... The sequel netizens recalled the old things of the murder and felt chilled| Juicy ding

Tatoeba

我被很多的蚊子了。

Wǒ bèi hěn duō de wénzi dīng le.

I got a lot of mosquito bites.

Tatoeba

真的不敢相信你在吃医生嘱不要食用的东西。

Zhēn de bù gǎn xiāngxìn nǐ zài chī yīshēng dīngzhǔ bù yào shíyòng de dōngxi.

I can't believe you are eating something the doctor has told you repeatedly you shouldn't eat.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced dīng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 叮 (dīng) mean in Chinese?
叮 (dīng) primarily means "to sting or bite (of mosquito, bee etc)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2500 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 叮 and 灯?
叮 (dīng) and 灯 (dēng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 口 vs 火 (same 丁 component).
How many strokes does 叮 have?
叮 is written with 5 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 叮?
The radical associated with 叮 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 叮?
叮 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 丁 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口丁 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 叮?
Common words with 叮 include: 叮当 (dīng dāng, "(onom.) ding dong"); 叮咚 (dīng dōng, "(onom.) ding dong"); 叮叮当当 (dīng dīng dāng dāng, "(onom.) ding dong"); 叮嘱 (dīng zhǔ, "to warn repeatedly"); 叮咛 (dīng níng, "to warn"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 叮 (dīng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dīng: 盯 (to stare at), 顶 (apex), 订 (to agree), 丁 (male adult), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 叮 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 叮 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.