Meaning of 遍
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- everywhere
- all over
- classifier for actions: one time
- variant of 遍[bian4]
How to use 遍
As a measure word, 遍 counts how many times an action is done from beginning to end, like reading a text or watching a film. It also means "all over," as in 遍地 (biàndì) and 找遍 (zhǎobiàn). Example: 请再说一遍。(Qǐng zài shuō yí biàn.) Please say it one more time.
遍 is built from the walking radical 辶 plus 扁 (biǎn), which gives the sound. Picture someone walking over every part of a place, covering it from start to finish.
Common mistake: Learners often mix up 遍 with 次 (cì). 遍 stresses doing the whole thing from start to finish, while 次 just counts occurrences, so 我去过北京三次 is correct but 三遍 sounds wrong there. Also remember 一 changes to yí before the fourth tone: 一遍 is said yí biàn.
遍 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
遍 biàn · everywhere · 12 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 遍.
| 普遍 | pǔbiàn | universal; general |
| 遍地 | biàndì | everywhere; all over |
| 遍布 | biànbù | to cover the whole (area); to be found throughout |
| 一遍 | yībiàn | one time (all the way through); once through |
| 找遍 | zhǎobiàn | to search everywhere; to search high and low |
| 传遍 | chuánbiàn | to spread widely |
| 遍及 | biànjí | to extend (everywhere) |
| 翻遍 | fānbiàn | to rummage through; to turn everything over |
| 跑遍 | pǎobiàn | to go everywhere; to scour (the whole town) |
Questions about 遍
What does 遍 mean?
遍 (biàn) means "everywhere; all over" and is used as a measure word.
How do you write 遍?
遍 is made of 1 character: 遍 (12 strokes). That is 12 strokes in total.
Is 遍 an HSK word?
Yes. 遍 is on the HSK 2 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
Where does 遍 go in a sentence with an object?
It usually goes after the verb and before the object: 我看了两遍这本书 or 这本书我看了两遍. If the object is a pronoun, the pronoun comes first: 我叫了他两遍.
What does 普遍 mean and how is it used?
普遍 (pǔbiàn) means common or widespread. For example, 这种现象很普遍 (Zhè zhǒng xiànxiàng hěn pǔbiàn) means "This phenomenon is very common."