乒 (pīng) is a Chinese character meaning “ping”. It is written from 丘 (hill; mound) and 丿 (left-falling stroke), one above the other, and takes 6 strokes.
Build the character for “ping (the knocking sound)”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
丘 + 丿
Top–bottom structure
Structure from: Unicode U+4E52 and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (strokes 1-5 match 丘 exactly, stroke 6 is a single 丿 falling below the baseline)
Memory aid
A hill (丘) with one stroke (丿) flicking off its bottom-left corner — the ball skids away and you hear it: ping.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
6 strokes
In real words
- 乒乓pīng pāngping-pong (the knocking sound); table tennis乒 = pīng
- 乒乓球pīng pāng qiútable tennis; ping-pong ball乒 = pīng
Go deeper
All readings
ping (knocking sound)
ping; onomatopoeia for a sharp knocking or cracking sound; used in 乒乓 (table tennis)
象声词，形容枪声或撞击声；常用于「乒乓」。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 乒乓pīng pāngping-pong (the knocking sound); table tennis乒 = pīng
- 乒乓球pīng pāng qiútable tennis; ping-pong ball乒 = pīng
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 乒 mean?
乒 (pīng) means ping; onomatopoeia for a sharp knocking or cracking sound; used in 乒乓 (table tennis).
How do you pronounce 乒?
It is pronounced pīng.
What parts is 乒 made of?
丘 (hill; mound) and 丿 (left-falling stroke), one above the other. The recorded source is: Unicode U+4E52 and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (strokes 1-5 match 丘 exactly, stroke 6 is a single 丿 falling below the baseline). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 乒 have?
6. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 乒?
丿. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 乒?
Common ones are 乒乓 and 乒乓球. The reading of 乒 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.