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.
层céngto pile on top of one another
尸corpse · shī
云cloud · yún
出chūto go out; to come out
屮sprout · chè
凵open box · kǎn
Memory aidA foot stepping up out of an opening 凵: to go out.
不bùno; not so
不 is a single shape of 4 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.
Memory aidPicture a bar 一 across the top that nothing below can get past: not, no.
层出不穷 (céngchūbùqióng) means “to emerge one after another” or “endless”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it céngchūbùqióng: céng with a 2nd tone, then chū with a 1st tone, then bù with a 4th tone, then qióng with a 2nd 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, 层出不穷 is written 層出不窮. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type cengchubuqiong with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 层出不穷 from the suggestions. Typing cengchubuqiong into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
层出不穷 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.
层céng2nd tone, rising
出chū1st tone, high and level
不bù4th tone, falling
