被 (bèi) is a Chinese character meaning “quilt”. It is written from 衤 (clothing (left-side form)) and 皮 (skin; hide; leather), side by side, and takes 10 strokes.
Build the character for “quilt”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
衤 + 皮
Left–right structure
Structure from: Unicode U+88AB and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (5 strokes 衤 + 5 strokes 皮 = 10)
Memory aid
Clothing (衤) made from a hide (皮), big enough to cover your whole body at night — that is 被, a quilt. Later it also came to mean being covered by something that happens to you: the passive "by".
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
10 strokes
In real words
- 被子bèi ziquilt; comforter被 = bèi
- 被动bèi dòngpassive被 = bèi
Go deeper
All readings
quilt; (passive marker) by
quilt; blanket; to cover; (marks the passive voice) by; to suffer, to be subjected to
睡觉时盖的被子；覆盖；用在句中表示被动，引出动作的施事者。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 被子bèi ziquilt; comforter被 = bèi
- 被动bèi dòngpassive被 = bèi
Sound component
皮 family
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 被 mean?
被 (bèi) means quilt; blanket; to cover; (marks the passive voice) by; to suffer, to be subjected to.
How do you pronounce 被?
It is pronounced bèi.
What parts is 被 made of?
衤 (clothing (left-side form)) and 皮 (skin; hide; leather), side by side. The recorded source is: Unicode U+88AB and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (5 strokes 衤 + 5 strokes 皮 = 10). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 被 have?
10. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 被?
衣. 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 被?
Common ones are 被子 and 被动. The reading of 被 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.