What does 杯 mean in Chinese?

杯 is a Chinese character with the radical 木.

How do you write 杯?

杯 is written with 8 strokes, starting from the 木 (tree) radical and following standard Chinese stroke order (top to bottom, left to right). See the interactive stroke-order tool for the full animation.

What is the radical of 杯?

The radical of 杯 is 木 (tree, Kangxi radical #75). Other common HSK characters using the same radical include 本, 来, 机, 果.

How many strokes does 杯 have?

The Chinese character 杯 has 8 strokes.

What HSK level is 杯?

On the new HSK exam syllabus, 杯 is a character to recognise at HSK 1.

杯: Chinese Character Details

杯

HSK 1 character 8 strokes Radical: 木 (tree)

Quick Answer

杯 is a Chinese character with 8 strokes, radical 木 (tree), HSK 1 on the new exam.

Full dictionary entry for 杯 →Animated stroke-order for 杯 →

Etymology

Oracle-bone origin

杯 is a phono-semantic compound rather than a pictograph and is not attested in oracle bone script. It combines 木 (wood) as the semantic element, indicating that early cups were wooden vessels, with 不 as the phonetic element giving the reading. An older variant 盃 uses 皿 (dish) as the semantic element instead, reflecting the same object made of pottery or metal.

Form evolution

The character appears in seal script with 木 on the left and 不 on the right, in the standard left-right phono-semantic layout. Clerical script squared off the strokes of both components, and modern standard script preserves the structure essentially unchanged. The variant 盃, with 不 over 皿, remained in limited use but was never adopted as the standard form.

How the meaning evolved

The original meaning was a wooden drinking cup, and the character quickly generalised to any cup, glass, or small vessel regardless of material. It is now also the standard measure word for drinks served in cups or glasses, as in 一杯茶 (a cup of tea) or 一杯水 (a glass of water). The material implied by the 木 radical is no longer felt in the modern meaning.

Cultural note

The idiom 杯弓蛇影 (bēi gōng shé yǐng), seeing the reflection of a bow in a cup and mistaking it for a snake, is a classic story used to describe groundless fear and paranoia. The phonetic 不 is a useful hint: several characters with 不 on the right, such as 怀 in its traditional form 懷's relatives, share no sound similarity today, but 杯 still rhymes weakly with its phonetic in older readings.