(pēng): to boil, to brew (tea), to cook by briefly stir-frying and then mixing in sauce, (old) to boil to death (judicial punishment in ancient times)

(pēng) is a Chinese character meaning “to boil.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #2918 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, fire. Its radical form (fire) appears in many related characters such as (huǒ, fire), (dēng, lamp, light), (yān, smoke).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to boil
  2. to brew (tea)
  3. to cook by briefly stir-frying and then mixing in sauce
  4. (old) to boil to death (judicial punishment in ancient times)

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿱亨灬 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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
pēng rèncooking
pēng tiáoto cook
pēng zhìto cook
pēng rèn fǎcuisine
zhì dà guó ruò pēng xiǎo xiānruling a large nation is like cooking a small delicacy (idiom)
pēng tiáo shùcookery
jiǎo tù sǐ zǒu gǒu pēngsee 兔死狗烹[tu4 si3 gou3 peng1]
tù sǐ gǒu pēnglit. to boil the hound once it caught the rabbit (idiom)
pēng cháto brew tea
pēng zhǔto cook
10
Total compounds
70
As first character
20
As last character
10
As middle character

appears in 10 compound words: 70 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 10 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.

rèn
0.86511,560 co-occurrences
zhǔ
0.6454,614 co-occurrences
yáo
0.453174 co-occurrences
shàn
0.421873 co-occurrences
cài
0.4171,338 co-occurrences
diào
0.4172,949 co-occurrences
shí
0.4143,534 co-occurrences
chú
0.387168 co-occurrences
hōng
0.385120 co-occurrences
ròu
0.381936 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

tùsǐgǒupēngHSK 7+

to get rid of somebody once they have served their purpose

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

消防员迅速赶到,扑灭了熊熊大

xiāo fáng yuán xùn sù gǎn dào , pū miè le xióng xióng dà pēng .

Firefighters arrived quickly and extinguished the raging blaze.

三立新聞網Apr 2026

微波竟比炒的更健康?医揭最NG调方式

wēi bō jìng bǐ chǎo de gēng jiàn kāng ? yī jiē zuì N G pēng diào fāng shì

Tatoeba

饪结束后请清洁炉灶和烤箱。

Pēngrèn jiéshù hòu qǐng qīngjié lúzào hé kǎoxiāng.

Clean the stove and oven after cooking.

Tatoeba

这些苹果宜于饪。

Zhèxiē píngguǒ yíyú pēngrèn.

These apples are good cookers.

Tatoeba

她打算去饪学校上几堂课。

Tā dǎsuàn qù pēngrèn xuéxiào shàng jǐ táng kè.

She's thinking of taking a couple of courses at a cooking school.

Tatoeba

印度是一个饪文化丰富的地区。

Yìndù shì yī gè pēngrèn wénhuà fēngfù de dìqū.

India is a region rich in culinary culture.

Tatoeba

饪课程应该作为学校的必修课。

Pēngrèn kèchéng yīnggāi zuòwéi xuéxiào de bìxiūkè.

A cooking course should be mandatory in schools.

Tatoeba

我听说你擅长饪。

Wǒ tīngshuō nǐ shàncháng pēngrèn.

I hear you are good at cooking.

Tatoeba

她用我喜欢的方式调鸡肉。

Tā yòng wǒ xǐhuan de fāngshì pēngtiáo jīròu.

She cooks chicken the way I like.

Tatoeba

正在读饪书的女孩是凯特。

Zhèngzài dú pēngrènshū de nǚhái shì Kǎitè.

The girl reading a cookbook is Kate.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced pēng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 烹 (pēng) mean in Chinese?
烹 (pēng) primarily means "to boil." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2918 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 烹 and 老?
烹 (pēng) and 老 (lǎo) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 烹 (death) vs 老 (birth).
How many strokes does 烹 have?
烹 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 烹?
The radical associated with 烹 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 烹?
烹 is composed of: 亨 (phonetic), 灬 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱亨灬 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 烹?
Common words with 烹 include: 烹饪 (pēng rèn, "cooking"); 烹调 (pēng tiáo, "to cook"); 烹制 (pēng zhì, "to cook"); 烹饪法 (pēng rèn fǎ, "cuisine"); 治大国若烹小鲜 (zhì dà guó ruò pēng xiǎo xiān, "ruling a large nation is like cooking a small delicacy (idiom)"). There are over 10 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 烹 (pēng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation pēng: 抨 (attack), 朋 (friend), 棚 (shed), 蓬 (fluffy), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 烹 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 烹 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.