嫔 meaning and stroke order
Courtesan; palace maid
How to write 嫔, stroke by stroke
13 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 嫔
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- imperial concubine
How 嫔 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Woman.
女 gives the meaning and 宾 hints at the sound.
Radical: 女 (woman), shared by 156 characters on this site.
How to remember 嫔
嫔 combines 女 (nǚ, woman) with 宾 (bīn, guest), which also gives the sound. Picture a woman who is a kind of honored guest living in the palace, an imperial concubine.
嫔 is a historical word for a rank of imperial concubine, so you mostly see it in history books and palace dramas. It often appears in the compound 妃嫔 (fēipín), meaning the emperor's consorts and concubines as a group. Example: 皇帝有很多妃嫔。(Huángdì yǒu hěn duō fēipín.) The emperor had many consorts.
Common mistake: Learners often read 嫔 as bīn because of its phonetic part 宾 (bīn), but the correct reading is pín with a second tone. Also do not confuse it with 频 (pín, frequent), which sounds the same but has 页 on the right.
Questions about 嫔
How many strokes are in 嫔?
嫔 is written with 13 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 嫔 mean?
嫔 (pín) means courtesan; palace maid.
How do you pronounce 嫔?
嫔 is pronounced pín, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 嫔?
The radical of 嫔 is 女, which carries the idea of "woman". Dictionaries list 嫔 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 嫔?
The traditional form of 嫔 is 嬪. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 嫔 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
What is the difference between 妃 and 嫔?
Both are ranks of imperial concubines, but 妃 (fēi) was usually a higher rank than 嫔 (pín). Together, 妃嫔 refers to the emperor's concubines in general.
Is 嫔 used in modern everyday Chinese?
Not in daily conversation, since it describes an old imperial institution. You will meet it in historical novels, TV dramas set in the palace, and discussions of Chinese history.