匪 meaning and stroke order
Bandits, robbers, gangsters
How to write 匪, stroke by stroke
10 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 匪
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- bandit
- (literary) not
How 匪 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Basket.
匚 gives the meaning and 非 hints at the sound.
Radical: 匚 (box), shared by 14 characters on this site.
How to remember 匪
匪 is pictophonetic: 匚 (a box or basket) gives the meaning area and 非 (fēi) gives the sound. Picture bandits stuffing stolen goods into a basket, doing what is 非 (not) right.
In modern Chinese 匪 almost always appears in words for criminals, such as 土匪 (tǔfěi) bandit, 绑匪 (bǎngfěi) kidnapper, and 劫匪 (jiéfěi) robber. Example: 警察抓住了绑匪。(Jǐngchá zhuāzhù le bǎngfěi.) The police caught the kidnapper.
Common mistake: Learners often say fēi with a first tone because of the phonetic part 非, but 匪 is third tone, fěi. Also do not confuse it with 菲 (fēi), which has the grass radical on top instead of the 匚 frame.
Common words with 匪
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
匪 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 匪
How many strokes are in 匪?
匪 is written with 10 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 匪 mean?
匪 (fěi) means bandits, robbers, gangsters. A common word with it is 土匪 (tǔfěi), meaning "bandit".
How do you pronounce 匪?
匪 is pronounced fěi, in the third tone (dipping).
What is the radical of 匪?
The radical of 匪 is 匚, which carries the idea of "box". Dictionaries list 匪 under this radical.
Is 匪 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 匪 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
What does 匪夷所思 mean, and why does 匪 mean not there?
匪夷所思 (fěiyísuǒsī) means something is so strange it is beyond ordinary thinking. Here 匪 uses its literary sense of not, similar to 非, so the idiom roughly means not something ordinary people would think of.
Can I use 匪 by itself to mean bandit?
Usually no. In everyday speech 匪 is used inside compounds like 土匪 or 匪徒 (fěitú), and saying 匪 alone sounds incomplete or old-fashioned.