HSK 2 · Adjectives

白 bái “white” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 白 means

  1. white
  2. in vain
  3. free of charge
  4. (bound form) (of facts, the truth, a situation) clear
  5. evident (e.g. 真相大白)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • (bound form) plain
  • without additions (e.g. 白饭)
  • (bound form) to explain
  • to state (e.g. 辩白)
  • Bai ethnic group

How to say 白

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale白bái2nd tone, rising

白 in a sentence

  1. 我爸爸的头发变白了。

    Wǒ bàba de tóufa biàn bái le.

    My dad’s hair has gone white.

    Sentence #8891837 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他白天睡觉，晚上工作。

    Tā báitiān shuìjiào, wǎnshang gōngzuò.

    He sleeps during the day and works at night.

    Sentence #333994 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 白 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 白 (bái) drawn as one shape
白báiwhite

白 is a single shape of 5 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 白

白 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 白

Words with 白

白天báitiān · daytime白色báisè · white明白míngbai · clear苍白cāngbái · pale坦白tǎnbái · frank空白kòngbái · blank蛋白质dànbáizhì · protein

More words: Adjectives

近jìn · near贵guì · expensive便宜piányi · cheap黑hēi · black红hóng · red新xīn · new忙máng · busy错cuò · wrong

FAQs

白 (bái) means “white” or “in vain”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it bái: bái with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 白 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type bai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 白 from the suggestions. Typing bai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
白 is an HSK 2 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.