(): to throw oneself at, to pounce on, to devote one's energies

() is a Chinese character meaning “to throw oneself at.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1499 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

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

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to throw oneself at
  2. to pounce on
  3. to devote one's energies

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌卜 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbpū mièto eradicate6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
pū kèpoker (game) (loanword)
pū kè páipoker (card game)
xiāng pūsumo wrestling
pū tōng(onom.) sound of object falling into water
pū jiùfirefighting
pū shuò mí líimpossible to unravel
měng pūto charge
pū bíto assail the nostrils (of fragrance and odors)
pū teng(onom.) thud
fǎn pūto counterattack
pū miàn ér láilit. sth hits one in the face
tuò pū(math.) (loanword) topology
pū kōnglit. to rush at thin air
pū miànlit. sth hits one in the face
hóng pū pūred
47
Total compounds
53
As first character
19
As last character
28
As middle character

appears in 47 compound words: 53 as the first character, 19 as the last, and 28 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.

tuò
0.76026,136 co-occurrences
miè
0.5674,633 co-occurrences
fáng
0.47911 co-occurrences
yuán
0.4721,458 co-occurrences
jué
0.4391,722 co-occurrences
jiù
0.4172,412 co-occurrences
xiāo
0.40811 co-occurrences
zāi
0.400612 co-occurrences
kōng
0.3813,930 co-occurrences
jiān
0.3813,864 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

diān pū bù pòHSK 7+

solid; unbreakable; (fig.) irrefutable; incontrovertible; indisputable

phrase
饿è hǔ pū shíHSK 6+

like a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey

phrase
yì xiāng pū bíHSK 6+

exotic odors assail the nostrils (idiom)

phrase
fēi'épūhuǒHSK 6+

to court self-destruction; to look for someone's own demise

phrase
pūshuòmílíHSK 6+

confusing; bewildering

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了一个电话,约朋友晚上一起吃饭。

tā pū le yī gě diàn huà , yāo péng yǒu wǎn shǎng yī qǐ chī fàn .

He made a phone call to arrange dinner with a friend that evening.

Am730Feb 2026

...顶层最后1伙特色户“双破顶” 标售 尺价近3万|九龙湾新盘

. . . dǐng céng zuì hòu 1 huǒ tè sè hù shuāng pò dǐng biāo shòu chǐ jià pū jìn 3 wàn jiǔ lóng wān xīn pán

... The last unit of the top floor "double broke the top" was sold at a price of nearly 30,000 yuan per square foot|Kowloon Bay new project

東方日報Feb 2026

禾确特:红军快入局轻松

hé què tè : hóng jūn kuài rù jú qīng sōng pū chuí

Hequete: The Reds are quick to enter the game and easily pounce on the hammer

LtnFeb 2026

吴宗宪、高捷现身士林!“德州克协会”祭300万奖金 开幕星光炸裂

wú zōng xiàn , gāo jié xiàn shēn shì lín ! dé zhōu pū kè xié huì jì 3 0 0 wàn jiǎng jīn kāi mù xīng guāng zhà liè

Wu Zongxian and Gao Jie appeared in Shilin!" Texas Hold'em Association" sacrificed 3 million prize money to open with stars

StheadlineFeb 2026

上海客“机票”昨夜来港买豪宅 老业主捱眼瞓签约 ...

shàng hǎi kè pū jī piào zuó yè lái gǎng mǎi háo zhái lǎo yè zhǔ 捱 yǎn 瞓 qiān yuē . . .

Shanghai guests "pounced on air tickets" came to Hong Kong last night to buy a mansion, and the old owner stayed up late to sign a contract...

百度新闻Feb 2026

排山倒海 面而来!六百只宋代瓷碗在这叠成墙

pái shān dǎo hǎi pū miàn ér lái ! liù bǎi zhī sòng dài cí wǎn zài zhè dié chéng qiáng

Overwhelming and coming! Six hundred Song Dynasty porcelain bowls are stacked on this wall

Tatoeba

克牌放在橡木桌上。

Bǎ pūkèpái fàng zài xiàngmù zhuō shàng.

Place the deck of cards on the oaken table.

Tatoeba

要即时灭那火灾并不容易。

Yào jíshí pūmiè nà huǒzāi bìngbù róngyì.

It was not easy to put out the fire at once.

Tatoeba

我刚打开锅盖,一股恶臭就鼻而来。

Wǒ gāng dǎkāi guōgài, yī gǔ èchòu jiù pūbí ér lái.

I just opened the lid, and a foul smell filled my nose.

Tatoeba

火很快便被熄了,房子只受到轻微损坏。

Huǒ hěn kuài biàn bèi pū xī le, fángzi zhǐ shòudào qīngwēi sǔnhuài.

The house did not suffer much damage because the fire was quickly put out.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 扑 (pū) mean in Chinese?
扑 (pū) primarily means "to throw oneself at." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1499 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 扑 and 补?
扑 (pū) and 补 (bǔ) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 衤 (same 卜 component).
How many strokes does 扑 have?
扑 is written with 5 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 扑?
The radical associated with 扑 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 扑?
扑 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 卜 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌卜 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 扑?
Common words with 扑 include: 扑克 (pū kè, "poker (game) (loanword)"); 扑灭 (pū miè, "to eradicate"); 扑克牌 (pū kè pái, "poker (card game)"); 相扑 (xiāng pū, "sumo wrestling"); 扑通 (pū tōng, "(onom.) sound of object falling into water"). There are over 47 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 扑 (pū)?
Several characters share the pronunciation pū: 仆 (to fall forward), 菩 (used in 菩薩|菩萨), 葡 (grape), 浦 (river bank), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 扑 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 扑 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.