徘 (pái): used in 徘徊

徘 (pái) is a Chinese character meaning “used in 徘徊.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 彳 (semantic) and 非 (phonetic). It ranks #2787 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 徘 step. Its radical form 彳 (step) appears in many related characters such as 很 (hěn, very), 得 (dé, to obtain), 往 (wǎng, to go (in a direction)).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 彳 step11 strokesFrequency #2787彳 semantic非 phonetic

Definitions

  1. used in 徘徊

Etymology & Origin

徘

pictophoneticstep

Decomposition: ⿰彳非 (layout: left-right)

Components:彳semantic非phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
徘徊pái huáito pace back and forth
1
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

徘 appears in 1 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 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 徘 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

徊huái
0.95313,962 co-occurrences
魂hún
0.351174 co-occurrences
迷mí
0.351312 co-occurrences
幽yōu
0.341108 co-occurrences
附fù
0.337486 co-occurrences
瞻zhān
0.33130 co-occurrences
在zài
0.3204,296 co-occurrences
缘yuán
0.31172 co-occurrences
直zhí
0.307642 co-occurrences
夜yè
0.296204 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了解徘字的来源，有助于理解中国文化。

le xiè pái zì de lái yuán , yǒu zhù yú lǐ xiè zhōng guó wén huā .

Understanding the origin of the character "徘" helps to comprehend Chinese culture.

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

...ed决策会议登场 黄金在5000美元附近徘徊

. . . e d jué cè huì yì dēng chǎng huáng jīn zài 5 0 0 0 měi yuán fù jìn pái huái

...As the policy meeting kicks off, gold hovers around $5,000

English News - RthkMar 2026

金价变动不大 徘徊5000美元附近

jīn jià biàn dòng bù dà pái huái 5 0 0 0 měi yuán fù jìn

Gold prices have remained largely unchanged, hovering around $5,000

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

富瑞估1个月拆息 上半年徘徊2.5厘

fù ruì gū 1 gè yuè chāi xī shàng bàn nián pái huái 2 . 5 lí

Jefferies estimates that the 1-month interbank rate hovered at 2.5% in the first half of the year

Character Family

彳 Radical Family — Characters sharing the step radical

彼bǐ很hěn径jìng往wǎng徐xú循xún御yù征zhēng彻chè待dài

Related Characters

很hěn得dé往wǎng待dài彻chè征zhēng律lǜ微wēi彼bǐ德dé

Homophones — Characters pronounced pái

排pái拍pāi牌pái

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 徘 (pái) mean in Chinese?
徘 (pái) primarily means "used in 徘徊." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2787 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 徘 and 辈?
徘 (pái) and 辈 (bèi) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 彳 vs 车 (same 非 component).
How many strokes does 徘 have?
徘 is written with 11 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 徘?
The radical associated with 徘 is 彳 (step). This radical appears in many characters related to step.
What are the components of 徘?
徘 is composed of: 彳 (semantic), 非 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰彳非 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 徘?
Common words with 徘 include: 徘徊 (pái huái, "to pace back and forth"). There are over 1 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 徘 (pái)?
Several characters share the pronunciation pái: 排 (arrange, row), 拍 (to pat), 牌 (signboard). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 徘 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 徘 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.