胚 (pēi): embryo

胚 (pēi) is a Chinese character meaning “embryo.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of ⺼ (semantic) and 丕 (phonetic). It ranks #2707 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 胚 flesh. Its radical form 肉 (meat) appears in many related characters such as 肉 (ròu, meat), 能 (néng, can), 背 (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. embryo

Etymology & Origin

胚

pictophoneticflesh

Decomposition: ⿰⺼丕 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
胚胎nounpēi tāiembryo
胚胎学nounpēi tāi xuéembryology
囊胚nounnáng pēi(zoology) blastula
胚芽nounpēi yábud
美人胚子nounměi rén pēi zi(coll.) girl who shows signs of becoming a beauty
三胚层动物sān pēi céng dòng wùtriploblastic animals (having three germ layers)
胚胎发生pēi tāi fā shēngembryogenesis
中胚层nounzhōng pēi céngmesoderm (cell lineage in embryology)
外胚层nounwài pēi céngectoderm (cell lineage in embryology)
内胚层nounnèi pēi céngendoderm (cell lineage in embryology)
色胚sè pēi(slang) pervert
小麦胚芽xiǎo mài pēi yáwheat germ
胚层nounpēi cénggerm layer
麦胚mài pēiwheat germ
胚芽米pēi yá mǐsemipolished rice (i.e. rice minus the husk, but including the germ)
22
Total compounds
55
As first character
18
As last character
27
As middle character

胚 appears in 22 compound words: 55 as the first character, 18 as the last, and 27 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 胚 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

胎tāi
0.6955,275 co-occurrences
芽yá
0.485242 co-occurrences
囊náng
0.458214 co-occurrences
畸jī
0.45613 co-occurrences
乳rǔ
0.451334 co-occurrences
蝇yíng
0.42730 co-occurrences
珠zhū
0.419398 co-occurrences
癌ái
0.408166 co-occurrences
胞bāo
0.404314 co-occurrences
细xì
0.384222 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

美人胚子měirén pēiziHSK 7+

beauty in the making; girl who has the potential to grow into a beauty

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们胚字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men pēi zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "胚."

奇客SolidotJul 2026

仇子龙曾是联署批评贺建奎的胚胎基因编辑手术的中国科学家之一,谴责其无视医学伦理。

qiú zǐ lóng céng shì lián shǔ pī píng hè jiàn 奎 de pēi tāi jī yīn biān jí shǒu shù de zhōng guó kē xué jiā zhī yī , qiǎn zé qí wú shì yī xué lún lǐ .

Qiu Zilong was one of the Chinese scientists who signed a joint statement criticizing He Jiankui’s embryo gene-editing procedure, condemning him for disregarding medical ethics.

奇客SolidotJun 2026

科学家再次尝试编辑人类胚胎

kē xué jiā zài cì cháng shì biān jí rén lèi pēi tāi

Scientists Attempt to Edit Human Embryos Once Again

奇客SolidotJun 2026

科学家精准编辑人类胚胎基因

kē xué jiā jīng zhǔn biān jí rén lèi pēi tāi jī yīn

Scientists Precisely Edit Genes in Human Embryos

東方日報Apr 2026

郭富城细女侧面照曝光 高颜值获赞美人胚子

guō fù chéng xì nǚ cè miàn zhào pù guāng gāo yán zhí huò zàn měi rén pēi zǐ

Side-Profile Photo of Aaron Kwok's Youngest Daughter Leaks; Her Stunning Looks Earn Her Praise as a "Beauty in the Making"

99 健康网Feb 2026

吃了避孕药意外怀孕了孩子能要吗?药物对胚胎有致畸风险吗

chī le bì yùn yào yì wài huái yùn le hái zǐ néng yāo ma ? yào wù duì pēi tāi yǒu zhì jī fēng xiǎn ma

Can I have a child if I take birth control pills and get pregnant unexpectedly? Does the drug pose a teratogenic risk to the embryo?

Tatoeba

你们两个无聊胚子!

Nǐmen liǎng gè wúliáo pēi zǐ!

You two bored foetuses!

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the ⺼ (flesh) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced pēi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 胚 (pēi) mean in Chinese?
胚 (pēi) primarily means "embryo." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2707 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 胚 and 坯?
胚 (pēi) and 坯 (pī) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 肉 vs 土 (same 丕 component).
How many strokes does 胚 have?
胚 is written with 9 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 胚?
The radical associated with 胚 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 胚?
胚 is composed of: ⺼ (semantic), 丕 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰⺼丕 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 胚?
Common words with 胚 include: 胚胎 (pēi tāi, "embryo"); 胚胎学 (pēi tāi xué, "embryology"); 囊胚 (náng pēi, "(zoology) blastula"); 胚芽 (pēi yá, "bud"); 美人胚子 (měi rén pēi zi, "(coll.) girl who shows signs of becoming a beauty"). There are over 22 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 胚 (pēi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation pēi: 配 (to join), 培 (to cultivate, to train), 陪 (to accompany), 佩 (to respect), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 胚 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 胚 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 胚 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.