What does 百 mean in Chinese?

百 (bǎi) means "hundred" in Chinese. The new HSK exam expects you to recognise it at HSK 1.

How do you write 百?

百 is written with 6 strokes, starting from the 白 (white) 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 百?

The radical of 百 is 白 (white, Kangxi radical #106). Other common HSK characters using the same radical include 的, 白.

How many strokes does 百 have?

The Chinese character 百 has 6 strokes.

What HSK level is 百?

On the new HSK exam syllabus, 百 is a character to recognise at HSK 1 and to write by hand at HSK 2 (the handwriting list HSK 1 and 2 share).

百 (bǎi): Meaning, Stroke Order, Radical & Examples

百

bǎi

hundred

HSK 1 character 6 strokes Radical: 白 (white)

Quick Answer

百 (bǎi) means "hundred" with 6 strokes, radical 白 (white), HSK 1 on the new exam.

Full dictionary entry for 百 →Animated stroke-order for 百 →

Pronunciation

bǎi

Meaning

Primary: hundred

Etymology

Oracle-bone origin

百 is built on 一 (one) plus 白, and oracle-bone forms already show this structure. 白 here is phonetic: Old Chinese *brak for 白 was close to *prak for 百. The 一 on top marks the character as a numeral, a common device in early Chinese writing.

Form evolution

Oracle-bone and bronze forms show a clear top stroke over a rounded 白-like element. Seal script regularised the lower component into the standard 白 shape with the horizontal top stroke above it. Clerical and modern 楷书 kept this layout unchanged, making 百 one of the more stable characters across three thousand years.

How the meaning evolved

The original meaning was the number 100, and that remains its primary sense. It extended to mean 'many, all kinds of' as in 百姓 (the common people, literally 'the hundred surnames') and 百货 (general merchandise). In classical texts 百 often stands in for 'numerous' rather than a literal count.

Cultural note

百 appears in the idiom 百闻不如一见 (hearing a hundred times is not as good as seeing once). On formal documents and cheques, the anti-fraud form 佰 is used instead of 百 to prevent alteration, a convention dating to the Ming dynasty.

Mnemonic

One white unit — a hundred

Decomposition

百=一component+白radical

Breaking a character into its components makes it far easier to recall. Each component above links to its own detail page.

Basic info

Pinyin	bǎi
Meanings	hundred
Stroke count	6 strokes
Radical	白 (#106: white)
New HSK exam	Recognise at HSK 1, write by hand at HSK 1-2
Frequency	#792 most common

Example sentences

一百块钱。
Yī bǎi kuài qián.
One hundred yuan.
From 百 (HSK 1)
百分之八十的学生都通过了考试。
Bǎifēnzhī bāshí de xuésheng dōu tōngguò le kǎoshì.
Eighty percent of the students passed the exam.
From 百分之
我们需要老百姓。
Wǒmen xūyào lǎobǎixìng.
We need Ordinary people.
From 老百姓 (HSK 5)