HSK 6 · Verbs

扑 pū “to pounce on” in Chinese

Traditional 撲

What 扑 means

  1. to pounce on
  2. to throw oneself at
  3. to devote one’s energies
  4. to flap
  5. to flutter
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to dab

How to say 扑

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale扑pū1st tone, high and level

扑 in a sentence

  1. 狮子突然向训练员扑了过去。

    Shīzi tūrán xiàng xùnliànyuán pū le guòqù.

    Suddenly the lion lunged at its trainer.

    Sentence #708757 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 扑 also appears in 扑灭 “to put out (a fire)”

    消防队员把火扑灭了。

    Xiāofáng duìyuán bǎ huǒ pūmiè le.

    The firefighters put out the fire.

    Sentence #670014 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 扑 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 扑 (pū) with each of its parts in a different colour
扑pūto throw oneself at
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒuMeaning part
  • 卜divination · bǔSound part

扌 hints at the meaning (hand); 卜 (bǔ) hints at the sound. Compare it with pū.

How to write 扑

扑 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 扑

More words: Common Verbs

拼搏pīnbó · to struggle hard拼命pīnmìng · desperately泼pō · to splash破例pòlì · to make an exception铺pū · to spread普及pǔjí · to popularise掐qiā · to pinch牵qiān · to lead (by the hand or a rope)

FAQs

扑 (pū) means “to pounce on” or “to throw oneself at”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it pū: pū with a 1st 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, 扑 is written 撲. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type pu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 扑 from the suggestions. Typing pu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
扑 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

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.