票 (piào) means "ticket" with 11 strokes, radical 示 (spirit), HSK 2 on the new exam.
Pronunciation
Meaning
Primary: ticket
Etymology
Oracle-bone origin
票 has no oracle-bone or bronze form. It is a late character, first appearing in seal script, originally written with 火 (fire) under a top component depicting flames and sparks rising. The original meaning was 'flying sparks' or 'light and floating', and the character was a graph for fire-borne embers.
Form evolution
In seal script the top portion shows swirling flame shapes and the bottom clearly contains 火. Clerical script heavily regularised the top into the shape that later became 覀 (a variant of 西), and the bottom 火 was rewritten into the four-dot 灬 form or, eventually, into the modern 示-like base seen today. The modern 楷 form 票 preserves almost nothing visibly pictographic of the original fire.
How the meaning evolved
From 'flying sparks' the meaning extended to 'light, floating, swift', which is preserved in 飘 (to float, drift) where 票 serves as the phonetic and semantic base. The modern senses 'ticket, slip, banknote' arose much later, from Ming and Qing usage where 票 referred to an official written slip, a light piece of paper acting as proof or currency. Today the fire origin is essentially invisible to everyday users.
Cultural note
The original 'light and floating' meaning lives on in the common word 漂亮 (piàoliang, pretty), where 漂 'to float' shares 票 as its core and carries the sense of something light and attractive. Learners who only know 票 as 'ticket' are often surprised to find it embedded in this completely different word family.
Mnemonic
Something shown from the west — a ticket
Decomposition
Breaking a character into its components makes it far easier to recall. Each component above links to its own detail page.
Basic info
| Pinyin | piào |
| Meanings | ticket |
| Stroke count | 11 strokes |
| Radical | 示 (#113: spirit) |
| New HSK exam | Recognise at HSK 2 |
| Frequency | #278 most common |
Example sentences
Words containing 票
Related characters
On the new HSK 2 exam
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Frequently Asked Questions
Reviewed by RJ Murray, Founder, HSK Lord.