培 (péi): to cultivate, to train

培 (péi) is a Chinese character meaning “to cultivate, to train.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 土 (semantic) and 咅 (phonetic). It ranks #1150 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 培 earth. Its radical form 土 (earth) appears in many related characters such as 在 (zài, to exist), 地 (dì, earth, ground), 场 (chǎng, field, place).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to cultivate, to train

Etymology & Origin

培

pictophoneticearth

Decomposition: ⿰土咅 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 培

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
培养verbpéi yǎngto cultivate5
培训verbpéi xùnto cultivate5
培育verbpéi yùto train6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
培根nounpéi gēn(loanword) bacon
戈培尔proper-noungē péi ěrJoseph Goebbels (1897-1945), German Nazi leader and politician
培训班nounpéi xùn bāntraining class
栽培verbzāi péito grow
培养皿nounpéi yǎng mǐnPetri dish
安培proper-nounān péi(loanword) ampere
培植verbpéi zhíto cultivate
培养液nounpéi yǎng yèculture fluid (in biological lab.)
堪培拉proper-nounkān péi lāCanberra, capital of Australia
培养基nounpéi yǎng jīculture medium
水培verbshuǐ péito grow plants hydroponically
无土栽培wú tǔ zāi péisoilless cultivation (e.g. hydroponics)
庞培páng péiPompeium, Roman town in Bay of Naples destroyed by eruption of Vesuvius in 79
安培小时ān péi xiǎo shíampere-hour (Ah)
水培法shuǐ péi fǎhydroponics
48
Total compounds
31
As first character
33
As last character
35
As middle character

培 appears in 48 compound words: 31 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 35 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 培 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

栽zāi
0.73724,758 co-occurrences
训xùn
0.65823,304 co-occurrences
养yǎng
0.63222,384 co-occurrences
栋dòng
0.54013 co-occurrences
育yù
0.50119,081 co-occurrences
种zhǒng
0.49316,438 co-occurrences
引yǐn
0.49014,968 co-occurrences
庞páng
0.437860 co-occurrences
烘hōng
0.437404 co-occurrences
堪kān
0.422865 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

安培小时ān péi xiǎo shíHSK 5+

ampere-hour (Ah)

phrase
无土栽培wú tǔ zāi péiHSK 7+

soilless cultivation (e.g. hydroponics)

phrase
组织培养zǔ zhī péi yǎngHSK 5+

tissue culture, esp. plant tissue culture

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

公司非常重视员工培训,每年都会安排多次学习机会。

Gōngsī fēicháng zhòngshì yuángōng péixùn, měinián dōu huì ānpái duō cì xuéxí jīhuì.

The company attaches great importance to employee training and arranges multiple learning opportunities every year.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

慈济大学、门诺医院奖助学子 培育东台湾护理师

cí jì dà xué , mén nuò yī yuàn jiǎng zhù xué zǐ péi yù dōng tái wān hù lǐ shī

Tzu Chi University and Mennonite Hospital scholarship to train nurses in Eastern Taiwan

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

“要么他走,要么我们下台” 邱培栋:阿占巴基必须辞职

yāo má tā zǒu , yāo má wǒ men xià tái 邱 péi dòng ā zhàn bā jī bì xū cí zhí

"Either he leaves, or we step down" Qiu Peidong: Azam Bakri must resign

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

...57周年 魏家祥:秉持“超越教育”理念栽培社会栋梁

. . . zhōu nián wèi jiā xiáng bǐng chí chāo yuè jiào yù lǐ niàn zāi péi shè huì dòng liáng

...57th Anniversary: Wei Jiaxiang: Cultivating Pillars of Society Through the "Beyond Education" Philosophy

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

師培公費生違約 恐賠百萬

師 péi gōng 費 shēng 違 約 kǒng 賠 bǎi 萬

Teacher training and publicly-funded students default and may lose millions

It之家Feb 2026

... 万名教师免费提供 Gemini AI 培训

. . . wàn míng jiào shī miǎn fèi tí gōng péi xùn

Free Gemini AI training for 10,000 teachers

Tatoeba

你要培根还是要香肠?

Nǐ yào péigēn háishi yào xiāngcháng?

Would you like bacon or sausage?

Tatoeba

他们想栽培新品种的米来增加粮食生产。

Tāmen xiǎng zāipéi xīn pǐnzhǒng de mǐ lái zēngjiā liángshi shēngchǎn.

They want to increase food production by growing new kinds of rice.

Tatoeba

澳大利亚的首都是堪培拉,不是墨尔本。

àodàlìyà de shǒudū shì Kānpéilā, bù shì Mò'ěrběn.

The capital of Australia is Canberra, not Melbourne.

Tatoeba

培养政治意识要花费时间。

Péiyǎng zhèngzhì yìshí yào huāfèi shíjiān.

Developing political awareness takes time.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 土 (earth) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced péi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 培 (péi) mean in Chinese?
培 (péi) primarily means "to cultivate, to train." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1150 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 培 and 部?
培 (péi) and 部 (bù) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 土 vs 阝 (same 咅 component).
How many strokes does 培 have?
培 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 培?
The radical associated with 培 is 土 (earth). This radical appears in many characters related to earth.
What are the components of 培?
培 is composed of: 土 (semantic), 咅 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰土咅 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 培?
Common words with 培 include: 培养 (péi yǎng, "to cultivate"); 培训 (péi xùn, "to cultivate"); 培根 (péi gēn, "(loanword) bacon"); 培育 (péi yù, "to train"); 戈培尔 (gē péi ěr, "Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), German Nazi leader and politician"). There are over 48 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 培 (péi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation péi: 陪 (to accompany), 赔 (to compensate), 配 (to join), 佩 (to respect), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 培 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 培 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 培 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.