批 (pī): to ascertain, to act on, to criticize

批 (pī) is a Chinese character meaning “to ascertain.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 比 (phonetic). It ranks #569 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 批 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to ascertain
  2. to act on
  3. to criticize

Etymology & Origin

批

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌比 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 批

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
批准verbpī zhǔnto approve5
批评verbpī píngto criticize4
大批adjectivedà pīlarge quantities of5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
批判verbpī pànto criticize
批评家nounpī píng jiācritic
批发商nounpī fā shānga wholesale business
审批verbshěn pīto examine and approve
批发verbpī fāwholesale
批量adverbpī liàngbatch
批文nounpī wénofficial written ruling in response to a submission
批注nounpī zhùto annotate
分批verbfēn pīto do sth in batches or groups
批斗verbpī dòuto drag sb before a public meeting to denounce, humiliate and physically abuse them (esp. during the Cultural Revolut...
挨批verbái pīto be criticized
批发价nounpī fā jiàwholesale price
批改verbpī gǎito mark (homework, exam scripts etc)
自我批评verbzì wǒ pī píngself-criticism
批示verbpī shìto write comments on a report submitted by a subordinate
70
Total compounds
64
As first character
26
As last character
10
As middle character

批 appears in 70 compound words: 64 as the first character, 26 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 批 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

评píng
0.64753,860 co-occurrences
准zhǔn
0.615100,437 co-occurrences
判pàn
0.52926,450 co-occurrences
复fù
0.51524,462 co-occurrences
第dì
0.489113,032 co-occurrences
厉lì
0.4571,560 co-occurrences
省shěng
0.43725,454 co-occurrences
审shěn
0.4355,846 co-occurrences
首shǒu
0.42629,636 co-occurrences
欠qiàn
0.42219 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

斗私批修dǒusīpīxiūHSK 5+

to fight selfishness and criticize revisionism

phrase
自我批评zìwǒ pīpíngHSK 4+

to criticise oneself

verb
批郤导窾pī xì dǎo kuǎnHSK 4+

to get right to the heart of the matter (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这批货物质量有问题,需要退回厂家。

Zhè pī huòwù zhìliàng yǒu wèntí, xūyào tuì huí chǎngjiā.

This batch of goods has quality issues and needs to be returned to the manufacturer.

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

花样年境外债重组 终获债权人批准

huā yàng nián jìng wài zhài chóng zǔ zhōng huò zhài quán rén pī zhǔn

Fantasia's overseas debt restructuring was finally approved by creditors

東方日報Feb 2026

公务员上相亲节目 夸大资产被批评教育

gōng wù yuán shàng xiāng qīn jié mù kuā dà zī chǎn bèi pī píng jiào yù

Civil servants on blind date shows are criticized for exaggerating assets and education

StheadlineFeb 2026

...电梯急坠事故 约20人受困5.5小时 大批游客滞留观景台

. . . diàn tī jí zhuì shì gù yuē 2 0 rén shòu kùn 5 . 5 xiǎo shí dà pī yóu kè zhì liú guàn jǐng tái

... Elevator crash about 20 people trapped for 5.5 hours A large number of tourists were stranded at the observation deck

百度新闻Feb 2026

“家门口”到“厂门口”,首批数百名来沪务工劳动者“..

jiā mén kǒu dào hǎn mén kǒu , shǒu pī shǔ bǎi míng lái hù wù gōng láo dòng zhě . .

From "doorstep" to "factory gate", the first batch of hundreds of migrant workers came to Shanghai":

百度新闻Feb 2026

浙江省政府批复同意!宁波一大学将设新学院

zhè jiāng shěng zhèng fǔ pī fù tóng yì ! nìng bō yī dà xué jiāng shè xīn xué yuàn

Zhejiang Provincial Government Approved and Agreed! A university in Ningbo will set up a new college

Tatoeba

为什么不订些批萨呢?

Wèishénme bù dìng xiē pīsà ne?

Why don't we order pizza?

Tatoeba

对严格限制经济的批评蜂拥而来。

Duì yángé xiànzhì jīngjì de pīpíng fēngyōng ér lái.

Critics are coming down hard on tightened economic restrictions.

Tatoeba

不要对批评太敏感了。

Bù yào duì pīpíng tài mǐngǎn le.

Don't be too sensitive to criticism.

Tatoeba

我今晚想吃些批萨。

Wǒ jīnwǎn xiǎng chī xiē pīsà.

I want to eat pizza tonight.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced pī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 批 (pī) mean in Chinese?
批 (pī) primarily means "to ascertain." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #569 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 批 and 毕?
批 (pī) and 毕 (bì) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 比 (same 比 component).
How many strokes does 批 have?
批 is written with 7 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 批?
The radical associated with 批 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 批?
批 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 比 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌比 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 批?
Common words with 批 include: 批准 (pī zhǔn, "to approve"); 批评 (pī píng, "to criticize"); 批判 (pī pàn, "to criticize"); 批评家 (pī píng jiā, "critic"); 大批 (dà pī, "large quantities of"). There are over 70 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 批 (pī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation pī: 皮 (leather), 疲 (tired), 匹 ((bound form) matching), 披 (to drape over one's shoulders), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 批 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 批 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 批 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.