腾 (téng): (bound form) to gallop, to prance, (bound form) to soar, to hover, to make room, to clear out, to vacate

腾 (téng) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) to gallop.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 朕 (phonetic) and 马 (semantic). It ranks #1624 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 腾 horse. Its radical form 肉 (meat) appears in many related characters such as 肉 (ròu, meat), 能 (néng, can), 背 (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) to gallop
  2. to prance
  3. (bound form) to soar
  4. to hover
  5. to make room
  6. to clear out
  7. to vacate

Etymology & Origin

腾

pictophonetichorse

Decomposition: ⿸朕马 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
折腾verbzhē tengto toss from side to side (e.g. sleeplessly)
沸腾verbfèi téng(of a liquid) to boil
腾出verbténg chūto make (some time or space) available (for sb)
图腾nountú téngtotem (loanword)
热腾腾adjectiverè téng téngsteaming hot
腾空verbténg kōngto rise into the air
闹腾verbnào tengto disturb
翻腾verbfān téng(of water, waves, emotions etc) to churn
热气腾腾phraserè qì téng téngpiping hot
奔腾verbbēn téng(of waves) to surge forward
腾飞verbténg fēilit. to fly upwards swiftly
扑腾verbpū teng(onom.) thud
欢腾verbhuān téngjubilation
杀气腾腾shā qì téng téngferocious
腾空而起téng kōng ér qǐ(idiom) to rise into the air
56
Total compounds
25
As first character
46
As last character
29
As middle character

腾 appears in 56 compound words: 25 as the first character, 46 as the last, and 29 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 腾 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

讯xùn
0.6877,494 co-occurrences
沸fèi
0.576991 co-occurrences
堡bǎo
0.5193,166 co-occurrences
符fú
0.5072,396 co-occurrences
沈shěn
0.49012 co-occurrences
奔bēn
0.483998 co-occurrences
频pín
0.4711,510 co-occurrences
兽shòu
0.46912 co-occurrences
冲chōng
0.4671,148 co-occurrences
饶ráo
0.447258 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

博斯腾湖bó sī téng húHSK 7+

Bosten Lake in Xinjiang

phrase
克什克腾kè shí kè téngHSK 7+

Hexigten banner or Kesigüten khoshuu in Chifeng 赤峰, Inner Mongolia

phrase
龙腾虎跃lóngténghǔyuèHSK 7+

active and vigorous; mighty and bustling

phrase
民怨沸腾mín yuàn fèi téngHSK 7+

seething discontent (idiom); popular grievances boil over

phrase
热气腾腾rèqìténgténgHSK 7+

steaming hot; seething with activity

phrase
腾空而起téng kōng ér qǐHSK 7+

(idiom) to rise into the air

phrase
万马奔腾wànmǎbēnténgHSK 7+

thousands of horses galloping, used to describe the magnificence of a scene

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好腾字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

xiě hǎo téng zì xū yāo zhǎng wò zhēng què de bǐ huà shùn xù .

To write the character "腾" correctly, you need to master the proper stroke order.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

腾讯AI再骂人!男设计拜年图片 5次修改不...

téng xùn A I zài mà rén ! nán shè jì bài nián tú piàn 5 cì xiū gǎi bù . . .

Tencent AI scolds people again! Male design New Year's greeting picture 5 times modified no...

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

从亏损到赚钱 速腾聚创靠机器人翻身

cóng kuī sǔn dào zhuàn qián sù téng jù chuàng kào jī qì rén fān shēn

From loss to money, Suteng Juchuang relies on robots to turn over

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

关税冲击 业界忧心 禁不起再折腾

guān shuì chōng jī yè jiè yōu xīn jīn bù qǐ zài zhé téng

The tariff impact has caused the industry to worry and cannot afford to toss it anymore

EttodayFeb 2026

黄腾浩退居幕后“忙搬桌椅”! 角头团队新作怀...

huáng téng hào tuì jū mù hòu máng bān zhuō yǐ ! jiǎo tóu tuán duì xīn zuò huái . . .

Huang Tenghao retreated behind the scenes to "busy moving tables and chairs"! The new work of the Jiaotou team...

It之家Feb 2026

...光;月之暗面成国内最快晋级十角兽公司;曝腾讯关闭天美蒙特利尔工作室...

. . . guāng ; yuè zhī àn miàn chéng guó nèi zuì kuài jìn jí shí jiǎo shòu gōng sī ; pù téng xùn guān bì tiān měi méng tè lì ěr gōng zuò shì . . .

... light; The dark side of the moon became the fastest domestic company to advance to the decacorn company; It was revealed that Tencent closed Tianmei Montreal studio...

Tatoeba

水沸腾后变为蒸汽。

Shuǐ fèiténg hòu biànwéi zhēngqì.

Water steams when it boils.

Tatoeba

“腾”和“乘”是叠韵关系。

"téng " hé "chéng " shì dié yùn guānxi.

'Teng' and 'Cheng' rhyme.

Tatoeba

你能为我腾出几分钟时间吗?

Nǐ néng wèi wǒ téngchū jǐ fēnzhōng shíjiān ma?

Could you spare me a few minutes?

Tatoeba

听到这个让我感觉热血沸腾。

Tīngdào zhège ràng wǒ gǎnjué rèxuèfèiténg.

It made my blood boil to hear that.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 马 (horse) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced téng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 腾 (téng) mean in Chinese?
腾 (téng) primarily means "(bound form) to gallop." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1624 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 腾 have?
腾 is written with 13 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 腾?
The radical associated with 腾 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 腾?
腾 is composed of: 朕 (phonetic), 马 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸朕马 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 腾?
Common words with 腾 include: 折腾 (zhē teng, "to toss from side to side (e.g. sleeplessly)"); 沸腾 (fèi téng, "(of a liquid) to boil"); 腾出 (téng chū, "to make (some time or space) available (for sb)"); 图腾 (tú téng, "totem (loanword)"); 热腾腾 (rè téng téng, "steaming hot"). There are over 56 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 腾 (téng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation téng: 疼 (ache), 藤 (rattan). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 腾 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 腾 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 腾 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.