坝 (bà) is a Chinese character meaning “dam”. It is written from 土 (earth; soil) and 贝 (shell), side by side, and takes 7 strokes.
Build the character for “dam”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
土 + 贝
Left–right structure
Structure from: modern glyph decomposition verified against hanzi-writer-data stroke geometry (strokes 1-3 = 土 on the left, strokes 4-7 = 贝 on the right); radical 土 from Unicode Unihan kRSUnicode. 贝 在本字中的表音或表意角色缺少可追溯依据，标为 unknown。
Memory aid
Earth (土) piled up on the left, a shell (贝) — old money — on the right: you spend a fortune heaping up soil to build a dam.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
7 strokes
In real words
- 大坝dà bàlarge dam坝 = bà
- 水坝shuǐ bàdam; weir坝 = bà
- 堤坝dī bàdikes and dams; embankment坝 = bà
Go deeper
All readings
dam
dam; dyke; embankment built to hold back water
拦住水流的建筑物；堤。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 大坝dà bàlarge dam坝 = bà
- 水坝shuǐ bàdam; weir坝 = bà
- 堤坝dī bàdikes and dams; embankment坝 = bà
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 坝 mean?
坝 (bà) means dam; dyke; embankment built to hold back water.
How do you pronounce 坝?
It is pronounced bà.
What parts is 坝 made of?
土 (earth; soil) and 贝 (shell), side by side. The recorded source is: modern glyph decomposition verified against hanzi-writer-data stroke geometry (strokes 1-3 = 土 on the left, strokes 4-7 = 贝 on the right); radical 土 from Unicode Unihan kRSUnicode. 贝 在本字中的表音或表意角色缺少可追溯依据，标为 unknown。. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 坝 have?
7. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 坝?
土. 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 坝?
Common ones are 大坝 and 水坝. The reading of 坝 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.