半 (bàn) is a Chinese character meaning “half”. It is written from 丷 (two spreading strokes) and ㇐ (horizontal stroke) and ㇐ (horizontal stroke) and ㇑ (vertical stroke), and takes 5 strokes.
Build the character for “half”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
丷 + ㇐ + ㇐ + ㇑
Overlapping structure
- 丷 two spreading strokes unknown
- ㇐ horizontal stroke unknown
- ㇐ horizontal stroke unknown
- ㇑ vertical stroke unknown
Structure from: Unicode U+534A and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (five strokes: 点 / 撇 / 短横 / 长横 / 竖)
Memory aid
Two small strokes (丷) split apart at the top, and one long vertical (㇑) runs straight down through both horizontals (㇐) — a line drawn right down the middle, cutting the whole thing in half.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
5 strokes
In real words
- 一半yī bànhalf; one half半 = bànspoken asyí bàn
- 半天bàn tiānhalf a day; a long while半 = bàn
- 半夜bàn yèmidnight; the middle of the night半 = bàn
- 半晌bàn shǎnga long while; half a day (dialectal)半 = bàn
Go deeper
All readings
half
half; semi-; partly; in the middle of
二分之一；也表示在中间、不完全。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 一半yī bànhalf; one half半 = bànspoken asyí bàn
- 半天bàn tiānhalf a day; a long while半 = bàn
- 半夜bàn yèmidnight; the middle of the night半 = bàn
- 半晌bàn shǎnga long while; half a day (dialectal)半 = bàn
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 半 mean?
半 (bàn) means half; semi-; partly; in the middle of.
How do you pronounce 半?
It is pronounced bàn.
What parts is 半 made of?
丷 (two spreading strokes) and ㇐ (horizontal stroke) and ㇐ (horizontal stroke) and ㇑ (vertical stroke). The recorded source is: Unicode U+534A and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (five strokes: 点 / 撇 / 短横 / 长横 / 竖). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 半 have?
5. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 半?
十. 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 半?
Common ones are 一半 and 半天. The reading of 半 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.