(piāo): to float (in the air), to flutter, to waft, complacent, frivolous, weak, shaky, wobbly

(piāo) is a Chinese character meaning “to float (in the air).” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #1517 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, wind. Its radical form (wind) appears in many related characters such as (fēng, wind), (biāo, (literary) very strong wind).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to float (in the air)
  2. to flutter
  3. to waft
  4. complacent
  5. frivolous
  6. weak
  7. shaky
  8. wobbly

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwind

Decomposition: ⿰票风 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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
piāo piāo ránelated
piāo yìgraceful
qīng piāo piāolight as a feather
piāo dàngto drift
piāo yángto wave
piāo hūswiftly moving
piāo fúto float
piāo luòto float down
piāo dòngto float
piāo piāoto float about
piāo miǎofaintly discernible
piāo língto fall and wither (like autumn leaves)
piāo ránto float in the air
piāo sànto waft (through the air)
piāo wǔto fly up
45
Total compounds
73
As first character
4
As last character
22
As middle character

appears in 45 compound words: 73 as the first character, 4 as the last, and 22 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.

yáng
0.5492,148 co-occurrences
miǎo
0.533246 co-occurrences
píng
0.521798 co-occurrences
qún
0.510546 co-occurrences
bǎi
0.494510 co-occurrences
0.491942 co-occurrences
dàng
0.488444 co-occurrences
0.486186 co-occurrences
yáo
0.483528 co-occurrences
0.463648 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

fēngyǔpiāoyáoHSK 6+

turbulent; precarious; tottering

phrase
piāohūbùdìngHSK 6+

to be unsteady in motion; to drift from place to place; to be erratic

phrase
qín jiàn piāo língHSK 6+

floating between zither and sword (idiom); fig. wandering aimlessly with no tenured position

phrase
yíngfēngpiāowǔHSK 6+

to dance and float in the wind

phrase
luánpiāofèngbóHSK 7+

free and powerful calligraphic style; fine calligraphy; husband and wife separated; marriage broken up

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

piāo zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character "飘" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

東方日報Feb 2026

春雨抚地八日湿 元宵雷动云掩月 惊蛰前后轻丝

chūn yǔ fǔ dì bā rì shī yuán xiāo léi dòng yún yǎn yuè jīng 蛰 qián hòu piāo qīng sī

The spring rain caresses the ground for eight days of wetness, the thunder of the Lantern Festival, the clouds cover the moon, and the light silk flutters before and after the hibernation

LtnFeb 2026

经典赛》王建民撞脸SJ希澈的发照 韩媒也关注

jīng diǎn sài wáng jiàn mín zhuàng liǎn S J xī chè de piāo fā zhào hán méi yě guān zhù

Classic" Wang Jianmin hit SJ Heechul's hair photo in the face Korean media also paid attention

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

...大涨,三大指数集体收涨,近4300只个股

. . . dà zhǎng , sān dà zhǐ shǔ jí tǐ shōu zhǎng , jìn 4 3 0 0 zhī gè gǔ piāo hóng

... The three major indexes closed up collectively, and nearly 4,300 stocks were in the red

百度新闻Feb 2026

山东济南网红巨型空鳌鱼被大风吹走,现场工作人员尝..

shān dōng jì nán wǎng hóng jù xíng kōng piāo 鳌 yú bèi dà fēng chuī zǒu , xiàn chǎng gōng zuò rén yuán cháng . .

Shandong Jinan Internet celebrity giant floating turtle was blown away by strong winds, and the on-site staff tasted:

百度新闻Feb 2026

年味里出就业香 海州乡土人才市集767个岗位引...

nián wèi lǐ piāo chū jiù yè xiāng hǎi zhōu xiāng tǔ rén cái shì jí 7 6 7 gè gǎng wèi yǐn . . .

The fragrance of employment wafts out of the New Year's flavor Haizhou local talent market 767 jobs attract...

Tatoeba

我见到一片白云在空中过。

Wǒ jiàndào yí piàn báiyún zài kōngzhōng piāo guo.

I saw a white cloud sailing across the sky.

Tatoeba

一朵白云在蓝天上

Yì duǒ báiyún zài lántiān shàng piāo.

A white cloud floats in the blue sky.

Tatoeba

他是世上第一个在太空中浮的人。

Tā shì shìshàng dìyī gè zài tàikōng zhōng piāofú de rén.

He was the first man to float in space.

Tatoeba

她的一头金发在夏日的微风中荡。

Tā de yītóu jīnfà zài xiàrì de wēifēng zhōng piāo dàng.

Her golden hair floats in the summer breeze.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the wind radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced piāo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 飘 (piāo) mean in Chinese?
飘 (piāo) primarily means "to float (in the air)." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1517 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 飘 and 刚?
飘 (piāo) and 刚 (gāng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 飘 (weak) vs 刚 (strong).
How many strokes does 飘 have?
飘 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 飘?
The radical associated with 飘 is 风 (wind). This radical appears in many characters related to wind.
What are the components of 飘?
飘 is composed of: 票 (phonetic), 风 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰票风 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 飘?
Common words with 飘 include: 飘飘然 (piāo piāo rán, "elated"); 飘逸 (piāo yì, "graceful"); 轻飘飘 (qīng piāo piāo, "light as a feather"); 飘荡 (piāo dàng, "to drift"); 飘扬 (piāo yáng, "to wave"). There are over 45 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 飘 (piāo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation piāo: 漂 (to float), 票 (ticket). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 飘 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 飘 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.