萍 (píng): duckweed

萍 (píng) is a Chinese character meaning “duckweed.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (semantic) and 泙 (phonetic). It ranks #2132 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 萍 grass. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 花 (huā, flower), 茶 (chá, tea), 菜 (cài, vegetable, dish).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 艹 grass11 strokesFrequency #2132艹 semantic泙 phonetic

Definitions

  1. duckweed

Etymology & Origin

萍

pictophoneticgrass

Decomposition: ⿱艹泙 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:艹semantic泙phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
萍水相逢píng shuǐ xiāng féngstrangers coming together by chance (idiom)
浮萍fú píngduckweed
萍乡市píng xiāng shìPingxiang, prefecture-level city in Jiangxi Province 江西省[Jiang1 xi1 Sheng3]
萍卡菲尔特píng kǎ fēi ěr tèPinkafeld (Hungarian Pinkafő) Austrian town on the border with Hungary
邓亚萍dèng yà píngDeng Yaping (1973-), table tennis player, several times world and Olympic winner
萍乡píng xiāngsee 萍鄉市|萍乡市[Ping2 xiang1 Shi4]
萍蓬草píng péng cǎospatterdock (Nuphar pumilum), a type of lily
邵飘萍shào piāo píngShao Piaoping (1884-1926), pioneer of journalism and founder of newspaper Beijing Press 京報|京报, executed in 1926 by wa...
8
Total compounds
63
As first character
38
As last character
0
As middle character

萍 appears in 8 compound words: 63 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 0 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 萍 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

飘piāo
0.521798 co-occurrences
乡xiāng
0.4684,476 co-occurrences
慧huì
0.4642,628 co-occurrences
鞠jū
0.450354 co-occurrences
燕yān
0.4381,782 co-occurrences
丽lí
0.4302,088 co-occurrences
冶yě
0.409402 co-occurrences
艳yàn
0.407246 co-occurrences
翠cuì
0.406924 co-occurrences
玫méi
0.396444 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

萍水相逢píngshuǐxiāngféngHSK 7+

to meet by chance

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个萍字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

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

The character "萍" carries different meanings in classical Chinese.

LtnApr 2026

健康网》群星会歌后夏萍泌尿道感染竟夺命 此族群风险高出数倍

jiàn kāng wǎng qún xīng huì gē hòu xià píng mì niào dào gǎn rǎn jìng duó mìng cǐ zú qún fēng xiǎn gāo chū shǔ bèi

Character Family

艹 Radical Family — Characters sharing the grass radical

蔼ǎi艾ài芭bā薄báo蔽bì菜cài苍cāng藏zàng草cǎo茶chá

Related Characters

花huā茶chá菜cài节jié英yīng草cǎo药yào蓝lán艺yì苦kǔ

Homophones — Characters pronounced píng

乒pīng平píng评píng凭píng坪píng苹píng瓶píng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 萍 (píng) mean in Chinese?
萍 (píng) primarily means "duckweed." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2132 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 萍 have?
萍 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 萍?
The radical associated with 萍 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 萍?
萍 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 泙 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹泙 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 萍?
Common words with 萍 include: 萍水相逢 (píng shuǐ xiāng féng, "strangers coming together by chance (idiom)"); 浮萍 (fú píng, "duckweed"); 萍乡市 (píng xiāng shì, "Pingxiang, prefecture-level city in Jiangxi Province 江西省[Jiang1 xi1 Sheng3]"); 萍卡菲尔特 (píng kǎ fēi ěr tè, "Pinkafeld (Hungarian Pinkafő) Austrian town on the border with Hungary"); 邓亚萍 (dèng yà píng, "Deng Yaping (1973-), table tennis player, several times world and Olympic winner"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 萍 (píng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation píng: 乒 ((onom.) ping), 平 (flat), 评 (to evaluate, to comment), 凭 (to lean against), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 萍 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 萍 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 萍 with real-time feedback

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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.