(tài): (bound form), appearance, shape

(tài) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form).” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #528 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, heart. Its radical form (heart) appears in many related characters such as (máng, busy), (kuài, fast, happy), (zěn, how).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form)
  2. appearance
  3. shape

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticheart

Decomposition: ⿱太心 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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
nounzhuàng tàicondition5
nountài dumanner4
noun/adjectivedòng tàimovement6
nounxīn tàiattitude (of the heart)5
nounshēng tàiecology (the study of interactions between organisms and their environment)6
nounxíng tàishape6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
biàn tàito metamorphose (biology)
shì tàisituation
姿zī tàiattitude
bìng tàimorbid or abnormal state
biǎo tàito declare one's position
shī tàito forget one's manners
yè tàiliquid (state)
jǐn jí zhuàng tàistate of emergency
tǐ tàifigure
cháng tàinormal state
shén tàiappearance
yí tàibearing
jìng tàistatic
qì tàigaseous state (physics)
gù tàisolid state (physics)
100
Total compounds
6
As first character
69
As last character
25
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 6 as the first character, 69 as the last, and 25 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.

zhuàng
0.761173,743 co-occurrences
xíng
0.55498,544 co-occurrences
shí
0.55329,070 co-occurrences
jìng
0.55216,530 co-occurrences
姿
0.53511,814 co-occurrences
jǐn
0.4778,646 co-occurrences
wěn
0.4566,276 co-occurrences
0.4549,756 co-occurrences
0.4451,044 co-occurrences
dòng
0.44242,222 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (13)

bìngtài féipàngHSK 5+

morbidly obese

adjective
cháng tài fēn bānHSK 4+

(Tw) grouping of students into classes of mixed ability

phrase
dòng tài yǐng xiàngHSK 4+

video

phrase
dòngtài zhùcíHSK 4+

aspect particle (such as 著 (zhe), 了 (le) and 過/过 (guò))

noun
gùtàifùméngHSK 7+

to return to one's old bad habits; to relapse into a former undesirable state

phrase
jǐnjí zhuàngtàiHSK 5+

state of emergency

noun
jiù tài fù méngHSK 7+

see 故態復萌|故态复萌[gu4 tai4 fu4 meng2]

phrase
kuáng nú gù tàiHSK 7+

to be set in one's ways (idiom)

phrase
lǎotàilóngzhōngHSK 5+

old and doddering

phrase
姿qiānzībǎitàiHSK 5+

to have numerous forms and variations

phrase
shēngtài huánjìngHSK 4+

biophysical environment

noun
shìtàiyánliángHSK 6+

people are friendly or unfriendly, depending on whether one is successful or not; the hypocrisy of the world

phrase

Showing 12 of 13 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他对待工作的度非常认真,值得学习。

Tā duìdài gōngzuò de tàidu fēicháng rènzhēn, zhíde xuéxí.

His attitude toward work is very serious and worth learning from.

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

...园“玩”出“花样”新年味 科技、运动、生为游客解锁多元游园新体验

. . . yuán wán chū huā yàng xīn nián wèi kē jì , yùn dòng , shēng tài wéi yóu kè jiě suǒ duō yuán yóu yuán xīn tǐ yàn

... The park "plays" with "tricks" New Year's flavor Technology, sports and ecology unlock a variety of new experiences for tourists

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

告别假期疲惫感 三招重启身心好状

gào bié jiǎ qī pí bèi gǎn sān zhāo chóng qǐ shēn xīn hǎo zhuàng tài

Say goodbye to holiday fatigue and three tricks to restart your body and mind in a good state

StheadlineFeb 2026

晨光追击│“丰盛”佳洋溢

chén guāng zhuī jī fēng shèng jiā tài yáng yì

Morning light pursuit│"Abundant" is full of beauty

百度新闻Feb 2026

“文旅+”业提质升级,山东新春假日文旅消费场景更..

wén lǚ yè tài tí zhì shēng jí , shān dōng xīn chūn jiǎ rì wén lǚ xiāo fèi chǎng jǐng gēng . .

"Culture and Tourism +" industry to improve the quality of upgrading, Shandong New Year's Holiday Culture and Tourism Consumption Scenarios more...

百度新闻Feb 2026

斯洛伐克政府宣布进入国家石油紧急状

sī 洛 fá kè zhèng fǔ xuān bù jìn rù guó jiā shí yóu jǐn jí zhuàng tài

The Slovak government has declared a national oil emergency.

Tatoeba

我对他的度变了。

Wǒ duì tā de tàidu biàn le.

My attitude towards him changed.

Tatoeba

她开始对生学感兴趣,是受到他的影响。

Tā kāishǐ duì shēngtàixué gǎn xìngqù, shì shòudào tā de yǐngxiǎng.

It was through his influence that she became interested in ecology.

Tatoeba

自从手术后,我父亲一直处于良好的状

Zìcóng shǒushù hòu, wǒ fùqīn yīzhí chǔyú liánghǎo de zhuàngtài.

My father has been in good shape since his operation.

Tatoeba

老人采取了傲慢的度。

Lǎorén cǎiqǔ le àomàn de tàidu.

The old man assumed an impudent attitude.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced tài

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 态 (tài) mean in Chinese?
态 (tài) primarily means "(bound form)." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #528 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 态 have?
态 is written with 7 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 态?
The radical associated with 态 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 态?
态 is composed of: 太 (phonetic), 心 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱太心 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 态?
Common words with 态 include: 状态 (zhuàng tài, "condition"); 变态 (biàn tài, "to metamorphose (biology)"); 态度 (tài du, "manner"); 事态 (shì tài, "situation"); 姿态 (zī tài, "attitude"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 态 (tài)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tài: 汰 (to discard), 胎 (fetus), 台 (Taiwan (abbr.)), 抬 (to lift), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 态 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 态 and the traditional form is 態.

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.