卜 meaning and stroke order
Divination, fortune-telling; prophecy
How to write 卜, stroke by stroke
2 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
- 2
Meaning of 卜
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- (bound form) to divine
- used in 蘿蔔|萝卜[luo2 bo5]
How 卜 is built
Pictographic character. A crack on an oracle bone.
How to remember 卜
卜 is a picture of a crack on an oracle bone: a vertical line 丨 with a small dot 丶 branching off, like the split that appears when a bone is heated. Ancient diviners read these cracks to tell the future, so 卜 means to divine.
As bǔ, it appears in words about fortune-telling, such as 占卜 (zhānbǔ). In everyday speech you will see it most in vegetable names, where it is read with a neutral tone: 我不喜欢吃胡萝卜。(Wǒ bù xǐhuan chī húluóbo.) I don't like eating carrots.
Common mistake: Learners often say luóbǔ with a full third tone for 萝卜, but in standard speech the 卜 is neutral: luóbo. Also do not confuse 卜 with 下 (xià, down), which has an extra horizontal stroke on top.
Common words with 卜
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
卜 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Characters that contain 卜
Learning 卜 makes these easier to recognize and write.
Questions about 卜
How many strokes are in 卜?
卜 is written with 2 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 卜 mean?
卜 (bo) means divination, fortune-telling; prophecy. A common word with it is 萝卜 (luóbo), meaning "radish (Raphanus sativus), esp. daikon".
How do you pronounce 卜?
卜 is pronounced bo, in the neutral tone (short and light).
What is the traditional form of 卜?
The traditional form of 卜 is 蔔. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 卜 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 卜 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 卜 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Why does 卜 mean both divination and appear in radish?
In simplified Chinese, 卜 replaced the traditional character 蔔 used in 蘿蔔 (radish). So the radish meaning comes from that merger, not from the divination sense.
Is 卜 used as a surname?
Yes, 卜 (Bǔ) is a Chinese surname, read with the third tone. In that case it is unrelated to the vegetable words.