卑

bēi
adjective #12,825

Meanings

  1. 1 low
  2. 2 base
  3. 3 inferior
  4. 4 humble

Examples

HSK 4
Tā zǒngshì juéde zìbēi.
She always feels inferior.
HSK 7-9
Tā de xíngwéi fēicháng bēibǐ.
His behavior is extremely despicable.

Tips

usage
Rarely used alone; appears in compounds: 卑鄙 (despicable), 自卑 (inferiority complex), 卑微 (lowly), 谦卑 (humble/modest).

Components

radical
十 shí
ten
The bottom 十 is the indexing radical but doesn't carry its 'ten' sense - it is the stylised handle of the ladle held by the hand above. Filing 卑 under 十 is a Kangxi convenience; the real semantic load is the whole servant-holding-ladle image.
semantic
白 bái
white
The top looks like 白 'white' but is actually a stylised picture of a hand gripping a wine-server's ladle, with a short slash through it. Treat the 白 shape as a memory hook - the original graph pictured a servant whose status was 'low', the modern meaning of 卑.

Stroke Order

卑 bēi