北 — Chinese character
北
běi
north; northern; northward
- Pinyin
- běi
- Radical
- 21 ⼔ (Spoon)
- Strokes
- 5
- Components
- 匕
- Formation
- pictographic — Two people 匕 sitting back-to-back; phonetic loan for "north"
- Japanese
- 北 as a kanji
Common words with 北
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 东北 (東北) | dōng běi | northeast |
| 北部 | běi bù | northern part |
| 北方 | běi fāng | north; the northern part a country |
| 西北 | xī běi | northwest |
| 南北 | nán běi | north and south; north to south |
| 以北 | yǐ běi | to the north of (suffix) |
| 北上 | běi shàng | to go up north |
| 北边 (北邊) | běi biān | north; north side |
| 北侧 (北側) | běi cè | north side; north face |
| 北极 (北極) | běi jí | the North Pole; the north magnetic pole |
| 北纬 (北緯) | běi wěi | north latitude |
| 北面 | běi miàn | northern side; north |
English words written with 北
北 in the Chinese classics
Occurrences: Analects 1 · Art of War 4 · I Ching 1 · Mencius 17 · Zhuangzi 38 · Doctrine of the Mean 2
- Analects 2.1
- Art of War 7.34
- Art of War 10.14
- Art of War 10.19
- Art of War 11.23
- Hexagram 39
- Mencius 1A.7
- Mencius 1B.11
Data: Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.