劈 (pī): to hack, to chop, to split open

劈 (pī) is a Chinese character meaning “to hack.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 辟 (phonetic) and 刀 (semantic). It ranks #2403 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 劈 knife. Its radical form 刂 (knife) appears in many related characters such as 分 (fēn, to divide), 别 (bié, to leave), 到 (dào, to reach).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to hack
  2. to chop
  3. to split open

Etymology & Origin

劈

pictophoneticknife

Decomposition: ⿱辟刀 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
劈叉verbpǐ chàthe splits (move in dancing)
劈开verbpī kāito cleave
劈头盖脸phrasepī tóu gài liǎnlit. splitting the head and covering the face (idiom)
劈柴verbpī cháito chop firewood
劈啪nounpī pā(onom.) for crack, slap, clap, clatter etc
劈头adverbpī tóustraight away
劈情操pī qíng cāoto have a friendly chat (Shanghai)
劈面pī miànright in the face
劈理pī lǐ(mining) cleavage
劈手pī shǒuwith a lightning move of the hand
微劈恩wēi pī ēn(coll.) (loanword) VPN
劈里啪啦adjectivepī li pā lāvariant of 噼里啪啦
劈离pī lísplit
劈空扳害pī kōng bān hàidamaged by groundless slander (idiom)
劈脸pī liǎnright in the face
20
Total compounds
90
As first character
5
As last character
5
As middle character

劈 appears in 20 compound words: 90 as the first character, 5 as the last, and 5 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 劈 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

腿tuǐ
0.587788 co-occurrences
斧fǔ
0.541214 co-occurrences
砍kǎn
0.530258 co-occurrences
刀dāo
0.457368 co-occurrences
棺guān
0.45586 co-occurrences
挂guà
0.435134 co-occurrences
拳quán
0.426182 co-occurrences
柴chái
0.412160 co-occurrences
裂liè
0.388148 co-occurrences
叉chā
0.38798 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

劈头盖脸pītóugàiliǎnHSK 7+

to one's face; directly towards someone

phrase
劈里啪啦pīlīpālāHSK 7+

alternative form of 噼哩啪啦

adjective

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个劈字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

zhè gě pī zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .

The character "劈" had different meanings in ancient Chinese.

Nownews今日新聞Apr 2026

熊仁谦陷劈腿风暴!自揭11岁常进殡仪馆观死 拍鬼片...

xióng rén qiān xiàn pī tuǐ fēng bào ! zì jiē 1 1 suì cháng jìn 殡 yí guǎn guàn sǐ pāi guǐ piàn . . .

Xiong Renqian Caught in Cheating Scandal! Reveals He Used to Visit Funeral Homes at Age 11 to Observe Deaths and Filmed Horror Movies...

EttodayMar 2026

赵骏亚暴冲成性!前女友告他劈腿又性侵 5度被控家暴还袭警

zhào jùn yà bào chōng chéng xìng ! qián nǚ yǒu gào tā pī tuǐ yòu xìng qīn 5 dù bèi kòng jiā bào hái xí jǐng

Zhao Junya has a violent temper! His ex-girlfriend accuses him of cheating and sexual assault; he has been charged with domestic violence five times and also assaulted a police officer.

東方日報Feb 2026

虞书欣新剧未拍先泼冷水 男主角随时劈炮

虞 shū xīn xīn jù wèi pāi xiān pō lěng shuǐ nán zhǔ jiǎo suí shí pī pào

Yu Shuxin's new drama poured cold water before filming, and the male protagonist split at any time

Hk01.comFeb 2026

节后机票大劈价!北京上海等热门航线低至200 元宵前...

jié hòu jī piào dà pī jià ! běi jīng shàng hǎi děng rè mén háng xiàn dī zhì 2 0 0 yuán xiāo qián . . .

Post-holiday air ticket bargains! Popular routes such as Beijing and Shanghai are as low as 200 before the Lantern Festival...

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

...环解密】T1无缘来港争LCK杯 黄牛党急劈价止血

. . . huán jiě mì T 1 wú yuán lái gǎng zhēng L C K bēi huáng niú dǎng jí pī jià zhǐ xiě

... T1 did not have the opportunity to come to Hong Kong to compete for the LCK Cup, and the scalpers hurriedly cut the price to stop the bleeding

Tatoeba

你敢说那庙是个破庙...你不怕被雷劈了吗?

Nǐ gǎn shuō nà miào shì gè pò miào... nǐ bù pà bèi léi pī le ma?

How dare you say that that temple is a ruined temple...aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 刀 (knife) component

刂 Radical Family — Characters sharing the knife radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced pī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 劈 (pī) mean in Chinese?
劈 (pī) primarily means "to hack." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2403 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 劈 and 闭?
劈 (pī) and 闭 (bì) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 劈 (open) vs 闭 (close).
How many strokes does 劈 have?
劈 is written with 15 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 劈?
The radical associated with 劈 is 刂 (knife). This radical appears in many characters related to knife.
What are the components of 劈?
劈 is composed of: 辟 (phonetic), 刀 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱辟刀 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 劈?
Common words with 劈 include: 劈叉 (pǐ chà, "the splits (move in dancing)"); 劈开 (pī kāi, "to cleave"); 劈头盖脸 (pī tóu gài liǎn, "lit. splitting the head and covering the face (idiom)"); 劈柴 (pī chái, "to chop firewood"); 劈啪 (pī pā, "(onom.) for crack, slap, clap, clatter etc"). There are over 20 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 劈 (pī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation pī: 僻 ((bound form) remote), 譬 (to give an example), 皮 (leather), 批 (to ascertain), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 劈 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 劈 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 劈 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.