坡 (pō): slope

坡 (pō) is a Chinese character meaning “slope.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 土 (semantic) and 皮 (phonetic). It ranks #1540 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 坡 earth. Its radical form 土 (earth) appears in many related characters such as 在 (zài, to exist), 地 (dì, earth, ground), 场 (chǎng, field, place).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. slope

Etymology & Origin

坡

pictophoneticearth

Decomposition: ⿰土皮 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 坡

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
山坡nounshān pōhillside6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
斜坡nounxié pōslope
新加坡proper-nounxīn jiā pōSingapore
下坡verbxià pōdownhill slope
走下坡路zǒu xià pō lùto go downhill
上坡adjectiveshàng pōuphill
陡坡noundǒu pōsteep slope
坡道nounpō dàoroad on a slope
滑坡nounhuá pōrockslide
吉隆坡proper-nounjí lóng pōKuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia
坡度nounpō dùgradient
上坡路nounshàng pō lùuphill road
下坡路nounxià pō lùdownhill road
科伦坡proper-nounkē lún pōColombo, capital of Sri Lanka
苏东坡sū dōng pōSu Dongpo, another name for Su Shi 蘇軾|苏轼 (1037-1101), northern Song writer and calligrapher
东坡dōng pōsee 東坡區|东坡区
52
Total compounds
17
As first character
48
As last character
35
As middle character

坡 appears in 52 compound words: 17 as the first character, 48 as the last, and 35 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 坡 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

新xīn
0.60889,102 co-occurrences
陡dǒu
0.6002,430 co-occurrences
加jiā
0.56888,480 co-occurrences
贯guàn
0.56618 co-occurrences
斜xié
0.5575,920 co-occurrences
隆lóng
0.51510,994 co-occurrences
峭qiào
0.486800 co-occurrences
吉jí
0.47211,090 co-occurrences
丛cóng
0.4551,306 co-occurrences
山shān
0.45421,996 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

半坡遗址bàn pō yí zhǐHSK 6+

Banpo neolithic Yangshao culture archaeological site east of Xi'an 西安

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个山坡太陡了,开车上去很危险。

Zhè gè shānpō tài dǒu le, kāichē shàngqu hěn wēixiǎn.

This hillside is too steep; it's dangerous to drive up.

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

(新春走基层)山西新绛:七星坡上坐满看戏人

( xīn chūn zǒu jī céng ) shān xī xīn 绛 : qī xīng pō shàng zuò mǎn kàn xì rén

(New Year at the grassroots level) Shanxi Xinjiang: The Qixing Slope is full of theatergoers

NewtalkFeb 2026

男子骑车出游经南横疑自撞护栏 坠边坡送医不治

nán zǐ qí chē chū yóu jīng nán héng yí zì zhuàng hù lán zhuì biān pō sòng yī bù zhì

The man was riding a bicycle through South Heng and was suspected of crashing into a guardrail and falling down a slope and was taken to hospital where he died

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

6旬骑士游南横公路自撞护栏 摔50米边坡丧命...撞击瞬间曝光

6 xún qí shì yóu nán héng gōng lù zì zhuàng hù lán shuāi 5 0 mǐ biān pō sāng mìng . . . zhuàng jī shùn jiān pù guāng

A 60-year-old knight traveled to Nanheng Highway and crashed into a guardrail and fell 50 meters down the slope and died... The impact was instantaneously exposed

百度新闻Feb 2026

餐饮在线运营商再惠谋求新加坡和香港双重上市:尚未盈..

cān yǐn zài xiàn yùn yíng shāng zài huì móu qiú xīn jiā pō hé xiāng gǎng shuāng chóng shǎng shì shàng wèi yíng . .

F&B online operator Re-Wai seeks dual listing in Singapore and Hong Kong: not yet profitable...

百度新闻Feb 2026

首金来了!苏翊鸣生日当天获男子坡面障碍技巧金牌 曾..

shǒu jīn lái le ! sū 翊 míng shēng rì dāng tiān huò nán zǐ pō miàn zhàng ài jì qiǎo jīn pái céng . .

Here comes the first gold! Su Yiming won the gold medal in men's steeplechase on his birthday, and had...

Tatoeba

在新加坡,鞭刑是处置犯人的方法之一。

Zài Xīnjiāpō, biān xíng shì chǔzhì fànrén de fāngfǎ zhīyī.

In Singapore, one way to punish a criminal is to whip him or her.

Tatoeba

山坡上有一个茅屋。

Shānpō shàng yǒu yī gè máowū.

There was a cottage on the side of the hill.

Tatoeba

蜿蜒的小路爬上了陡坡。

Wānyán de xiǎolù páshàng le dǒupō.

The path zigzagged up the steep slope.

Tatoeba

在新加坡的街道上扔垃圾会被罚款。

Zài Xīnjiāpō de jiēdào shàng rēng lājī huì bèi fákuǎn.

They fine you in Singapore if you throw trash in the streets.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 土 (earth) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced pō

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 坡 (pō) mean in Chinese?
坡 (pō) primarily means "slope." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1540 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 坡 and 被?
坡 (pō) and 被 (bèi) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 土 vs 衤 (same 皮 component).
How many strokes does 坡 have?
坡 is written with 8 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 坡?
The radical associated with 坡 is 土 (earth). This radical appears in many characters related to earth.
What are the components of 坡?
坡 is composed of: 土 (semantic), 皮 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰土皮 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 坡?
Common words with 坡 include: 斜坡 (xié pō, "slope"); 山坡 (shān pō, "hillside"); 新加坡 (xīn jiā pō, "Singapore"); 下坡 (xià pō, "downhill slope"); 走下坡路 (zǒu xià pō lù, "to go downhill"). There are over 52 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 坡 (pō)?
Several characters share the pronunciation pō: 破 (break), 颇 (rather), 迫 (to persecute), 婆 (grandmother). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 坡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 坡 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 坡 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.