HSK 6 · Society

保卫 bǎowèi “to defend” in Chinese

Traditional 保衛

What 保卫 means

  1. to defend
  2. to safeguard

How to say 保卫

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale保bǎo3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale卫wèi4th tone, falling

保卫 in a sentence

  1. 我们决心保卫祖国。

    Wǒmen juéxīn bǎowèi zǔguó.

    We are determined to defend our homeland.

    Sentence #5595122 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他们抵御入侵者，保卫了国家。

    Tāmen dǐyù rùqīnzhě, bǎowèi le guójiā.

    They defended their country against the invaders.

    Sentence #5655390 from Tatoeba

How 保卫 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 保 (bǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
保bǎoto defend; to protect; to keep
  • 亻person form of 人 · rénMeaning part
  • 呆dull · dāiSound part

亻 hints at the meaning (person); 呆 (dāi) hints at the sound. Compare it with bǎo.

The character 卫 (wèi) drawn as one shape
卫wèito guard

卫 is a single shape of 3 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 保卫

保 9 strokes · 卫 3 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

保卫 (bǎowèi) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 保卫 (bǎowèi). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 保卫

Words with 保

保证bǎozhèng · guarantee保护bǎohù · to protect保留bǎoliú · to keep保持bǎochí · to keep保存bǎocún · to conserve保险bǎoxiǎn · insurance保养bǎoyǎng · to take care of (one’s health)保重bǎozhòng · to take care of oneself保密bǎomì · to keep something secret保管bǎoguǎn · to look after

Words with 卫

卫生间wèishēngjiān · bathroom捍卫hànwèi · to defend卫星wèixīng · satellite

More words: Society & Law

绑架bǎngjià · to kidnap包庇bāobì · to shield (wrongdoing)报警bàojǐng · to call the police暴力bàolì · violence保障bǎozhàng · to ensure被告bèigào · defendant辩护biànhù · to defend表决biǎojué · to vote

FAQs

保卫 (bǎowèi) means “to defend” or “to safeguard”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it bǎowèi: bǎo with a 3rd tone, then wèi with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 保卫 is written 保衛. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type baowei with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 保卫 from the suggestions. Typing baowei into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
保卫 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.