偏 (piān) is a Chinese character meaning “inclined to one side”. It is written from 亻 (person (the form 人 takes on the left)) and 扁 (flat), side by side, and takes 11 strokes.
Build the character for “slanting; biased”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
亻 + 扁
Left–right structure
Structure from: 说文解字: 偏，頗也。从人扁聲
Memory aid
A person (亻) leaning against a flat (扁) board tips over to one side — slanted, leaning, not straight.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
11 strokes
In real words
- 偏见piān jiànprejudice; bias偏 = piān
- 偏旁piān pángcomponent of a Chinese character (radical or side part)偏 = piān
- 不偏不倚bù piān bù yǐimpartial; leaning to neither side偏 = piān
- 偏颇piān pōbiased; partial; one-sided偏 = piān
Go deeper
All readings
slanting; biased
inclined to one side; slanting; biased, partial; (as adverb) insist on, deliberately
不正，偏向一边；不公正。也作副词，表示故意与要求或常理相反。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 偏见piān jiànprejudice; bias偏 = piān
- 偏旁piān pángcomponent of a Chinese character (radical or side part)偏 = piān
- 不偏不倚bù piān bù yǐimpartial; leaning to neither side偏 = piān
- 偏颇piān pōbiased; partial; one-sided偏 = piān
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 偏 mean?
偏 (piān) means inclined to one side; slanting; biased, partial; (as adverb) insist on, deliberately.
How do you pronounce 偏?
It is pronounced piān.
What parts is 偏 made of?
亻 (person (the form 人 takes on the left)) and 扁 (flat), side by side. The recorded source is: 说文解字: 偏，頗也。从人扁聲. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 偏 have?
11. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 偏?
亻. 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 偏?
Common ones are 偏见 and 偏旁. The reading of 偏 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.