(): general, universal

() is a Chinese character meaning “general, universal.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #630 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, everyone 並 under the sun 日. Its radical form (sun) appears in many related characters such as (, sun, day), (zǎo, early, morning), (shí, time, hour).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. general, universal

Etymology & Origin

ideographicEveryone 並 under the sun 日

Decomposition: ⿱並日 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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
adjectivepǔ tōngcommon4
adjectivepǔ biànuniversal4
nounpǔ tōng huàMandarin (common language)4
verbkē pǔpopularization of science (abbr. for 科學普及|科学普及[ke1 xue2 pu3 ji2])6
verbpǔ jíto spread extensively5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
pǔ tōng rénordinary person
xīn pǔ sēnSimpson (name)
jí pǔJeep (car brand)
xià pǔSharp Corporation
jí pǔ chējeep (military vehicle) (loanword)
tāng pǔ sēn(name) Thompson
pǔ lā tíPilates (physical fitness system)
suǒ pǔThorpe (name)
pǔ zhào(of sunlight) to bathe all things
chá pǔ mànChapman (name)
pǔ lǔ shìPrussia (historical German state)
pǔ lánBurang county in Ngari prefecture, Tibet, Tibetan: Spu hreng rdzong
pǔ lā dáPrada (brand)
pǔ lāPula (city in Croatia)
pǔ gésee 普格縣|普格县[Pu3 ge2 Xian4]
100
Total compounds
66
As first character
15
As last character
19
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 66 as the first character, 15 as the last, and 19 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.

biàn
0.744220,517 co-occurrences
tōng
0.578410,814 co-occurrences
shuì
0.557106 co-occurrences
lǎng
0.556101,315 co-occurrences
0.54033 co-occurrences
chá
0.517122,688 co-occurrences
0.49451,594 co-occurrences
0.490274,284 co-occurrences
zhē
0.4619,852 co-occurrences
0.456135,432 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (19)

Nán-ĀnpǔdūnHSK 7+

Southampton (a city in England, United Kingdom)

pǔ dù zhòng shēngHSK 4+

(Buddhism) to deliver all living creatures from suffering (idiom)

phrase
pǔ fǎ zhàn zhēngHSK 5+

Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)

phrase
pǔ jì zhòng shēngHSK 4+

universal mercy and succor (idiom); the Buddha's infinite power and mercy

phrase
pǔ lì zī jiǎngHSK 7+

Pulitzer Prize (Tw)

phrase
PǔlínsīdùnHSK 7+

Princeton

pǔlǔkǎyīnHSK 7+

procaine

noun
PǔlǔsītèHSK 7+

a transliteration of the French surname Proust

PǔluówàngsīHSK 7+

Provence

pǔpǔ yìshùHSK 4+

pop art

noun
pǔtiāntóngqìngHSK 4+

everyone rejoices and celebrates

phrase
pǔtōng jiàoyùHSK 4+

general education

noun

Showing 12 of 19 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

通话是中国的官方语言,在全国各地都能通用。

Pǔtōnghuà shì Zhōngguó de guānfāng yǔyán, zài quánguó gèdì dōu néng tōngyòng.

Mandarin is China's official language and can be used throughout the country.

百度新闻Feb 2026

...年“识局”6 | 不想当“跛脚鸭”,特朗能否守..

. . . nián shí jú 6 bù xiǎng dāng 跛 jiǎo yā , tè lǎng pǔ néng fǒu shǒu . .

... Year "Knowing the Bureau" 6 | If you don't want to be a "lame duck", can Trump keep it?

百度新闻Feb 2026

豪赌AI却让通员工买单?Meta据称连续两年削减..

háo dǔ A I què ràng pǔ tōng yuán gōng mǎi dān ? M e t a jù chèn lián xù liǎng nián xiāo jiǎn . .

Gambling on AI but making ordinary employees pay? Meta is said to have cut for two consecutive years:

百度新闻Feb 2026

存储概念股涨 西部数据(WDC.US)涨逾3%

cún chǔ gài niàn gǔ pǔ zhǎng xī bù shǔ jù ( W D C . U S ) zhǎng yú 3

Storage concept stocks rose across Western Digital (WDC. US) rose more than 3%

百度新闻Feb 2026

上午伊核下午俄乌,特朗“谈判用人”引争议:派俩房..

shǎng wǔ yī hé xià wǔ é wū , tè lǎng pǔ tán pàn yòng rén yǐn zhēng yì pā liǎ fáng . .

Morning Iran, Afternoon Russia-Ukraine: Trump's "Negotiation Team" Sparks Controversy: Sending Two...

百度新闻Feb 2026

通人也能开飞机回家过年了?飞2小时油费只...

pǔ tōng rén yě néng kāi fēi jī huí jiā guò nián le ? fēi xiǎo shí yóu fèi zhī . . .

Can ordinary people fly home for the New Year now? A two-hour flight costs only...

Tatoeba

那个名字很通吗?

Nàge míngzi hěn pǔtōng ma?

Is that a common name?

Tatoeba

这条路是不是直接通往拉多博物馆?

Zhè tiáo lù shìbùshì zhíjiē tōngwǎng Pǔlā duō bówùguǎn?

Is this the direct way to the Prado?

Tatoeba

未来,机器人会像个人电脑一样及吗?

Wèilái, jīqìrén huì xiàng gèréndiànnǎo yīyàng pǔjí ma?

In the future, will robots be as common as personal computers?

Tatoeba

上海人通话说得怎么样?

Shànghǎi rén pǔtōnghuà shuō de zěnmeyàng?

What does Shanghai people's Mandarin sound like?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 普 (pǔ) mean in Chinese?
普 (pǔ) primarily means "general, universal." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #630 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 普 have?
普 is written with 12 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 普?
The radical associated with 普 is 日 (sun). This radical appears in many characters related to sun.
What are the components of 普?
普 is composed of: 並 (structural), 日 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱並日 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 普?
Common words with 普 include: 普通 (pǔ tōng, "common"); 普通人 (pǔ tōng rén, "ordinary person"); 辛普森 (xīn pǔ sēn, "Simpson (name)"); 吉普 (jí pǔ, "Jeep (car brand)"); 普遍 (pǔ biàn, "universal"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 普 (pǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation pǔ: 仆 (to fall forward), 扑 (to throw oneself at), 菩 (used in 菩薩|菩萨), 葡 (grape), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 普 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 普 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.