Kilo Lingo

(bái) - white, blank, in vain, plainly in Mandarin

bái

Traditional: 白

Line drawing of 白
Coloured illustration of 白
#1749 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

white, blank, in vain, plainly

Word origin

A pictograph generally taken to depict a grain of rice or the rays of the rising sun, from which the sense of white and bright derives.

Origin
pictograph
Root
白 (a grain or beam of light, depicting whiteness)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 白

Examples

qún

She wore a white dress.

We set off before it was light.

tàng

I made this trip for nothing.

qiáng

The wall is a blank space.

His hair has turned white.

白 (bái) primarily means white, and by extension blank, plain, or in vain (as in 白跑, a wasted trip). It is one of the basic colour terms and a very productive character.

Where this fits

Appears in 2 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 白.

Used in

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Mandarin · Free printables

白: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "白" (white, blank, in vain, plainly): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 35.