北 (běi) is a Chinese character meaning “north”. It is written from ㇐ (horizontal stroke) and ㇀ (rising stroke) and ㇑ (vertical stroke) and 匕 (ancient spoon; dagger), side by side, and takes 5 strokes.
Build the character for “north”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
㇐ + ㇀ + ㇑ + 匕
Left–right structure
- ㇐ horizontal stroke unknown
- ㇀ rising stroke unknown
- ㇑ vertical stroke unknown
- 匕 ancient spoon; dagger · bǐ unknown
Structure from: Unicode U+5317; modern glyph stroke decomposition checked against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 stroke geometry
Memory aid
The vertical stroke (㇑) is one person's spine; the horizontal (㇐) and the rising stroke (㇀) are the arms reaching away to the left. On the right, 匕 leans off the other way. Two figures turned back to back — one of them is facing north.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
5 strokes
In real words
- 东北dōng běinortheast北 = běi
- 北斗běi dǒuthe Big Dipper北 = běispoken asbéi dǒu
- 北极běi jíthe North Pole; the Arctic北 = běi
- 北京běi jīngBeijing (capital of China)北 = běi
- 陕北shǎn běinorthern Shaanxi北 = běispoken asshán běi
Go deeper
All readings
north
north; northern
方向词，指北方，与「南」相对。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 东北dōng běinortheast北 = běi
- 北斗běi dǒuthe Big Dipper北 = běispoken asbéi dǒu
- 北极běi jíthe North Pole; the Arctic北 = běi
- 北京běi jīngBeijing (capital of China)北 = běi
- 陕北shǎn běinorthern Shaanxi北 = běispoken asshán běi
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 北 mean?
北 (běi) means north; northern.
How do you pronounce 北?
It is pronounced běi.
What parts is 北 made of?
㇐ (horizontal stroke) and ㇀ (rising stroke) and ㇑ (vertical stroke) and 匕 (ancient spoon; dagger), side by side. The recorded source is: Unicode U+5317; modern glyph stroke decomposition checked against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 stroke geometry. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 北 have?
5. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 北?
匕. 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 北?
Common ones are 东北 and 北斗. The reading of 北 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.