丐 (gài): to beg for alms, beggar

丐 (gài) is a Chinese character meaning “to beg for alms.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 下 (structural). It ranks #2496 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, 丐 a person leaning forward to ask for help. Its radical form 一 (one) appears in many related characters such as 一 (yī, one), 七 (qī, seven), 三 (sān, three).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 一 one4 strokesFrequency #2496下 structural

Definitions

  1. to beg for alms
  2. beggar

Etymology & Origin

丐

pictographicA person leaning forward to ask for help

Components:下structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
乞丐qǐ gàibeggar
丐帮gài bāngbeggars' union
丐版gài bǎn(slang) basic version (of a product)
3
Total compounds
67
As first character
33
As last character
0
As middle character

丐 appears in 3 compound words: 67 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 0 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 丐 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

乞qǐ
0.7768,663 co-occurrences
帮bāng
0.441618 co-occurrences
屈qū
0.422312 co-occurrences
舵duò
0.38866 co-occurrences
莅lì
0.38736 co-occurrences
老lǎo
0.330576 co-occurrences
扮bàn
0.326120 co-occurrences
盆pén
0.32360 co-occurrences
碗wǎn
0.31530 co-occurrences
贫pín
0.31148 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

丐字由4笔画组成，结构很巧妙。

gài zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "丐" consists of four strokes and has a very ingenious structure.

Tatoeba

他很富有，但活得像个乞丐。

Tā hěn fùyǒu, dàn huó de xiàng gè qǐgài.

He is rich yet he lives like a beggar.

Tatoeba

我把身上的钱全都给了那个乞丐。

Wǒ bǎ shēnshang de qián quándōu gěi le nàge qǐgài.

I gave the beggar what money I had.

Tatoeba

这名乞丐在收集干面包。

Zhè míng qǐgài zài shōují gàn miànbāo.

The beggar is collecting stale bread.

Character Family

一 Radical Family — Characters sharing the one radical

不bù东dōng两liǎng七qī且qiě三sān上shàng万wàn下xià一yī

Related Characters

一yī七qī三sān上shàng下xià不bù东dōng两liǎng万wàn且qiě

Homophones — Characters pronounced gài

该gāi改gǎi钙gài溉gài概gài

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 丐 (gài) mean in Chinese?
丐 (gài) primarily means "to beg for alms." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2496 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 丐 have?
丐 is written with 4 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 丐?
The radical associated with 丐 is 一 (one). This radical appears in many characters related to one.
What are the components of 丐?
丐 is composed of: 下 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 丐?
Common words with 丐 include: 乞丐 (qǐ gài, "beggar"); 丐帮 (gài bāng, "beggars' union"); 丐版 (gài bǎn, "(slang) basic version (of a product)"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 丐 (gài)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gài: 该 (should), 改 (to change), 钙 (calcium (chemistry)), 溉 (to irrigate), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 丐 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 丐 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 丐 with real-time feedback

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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.