脖

bó
noun #25,773

Measure Word

一条脖子 tiáo

Meanings

  1. 1 neck

Characters

Examples

HSK 6
Tā bózi shàng dài zhe yī tiáo xiàngliàn.
She was wearing a necklace around her neck.
HSK 7-9
Tā de bózi bèi shài de tōnghóng.
His neck was burnt bright red by the sun.

Tips

usage
脖 is rarely used alone in modern speech; the full word is 脖子. It functions as a bound morpheme, appearing in compound words like 脖颈 (nape of the neck).

Components

radical
⺼ ròu
flesh; meat
⺼ is the flesh-meat radical (left-side form of 肉). The neck is one of the body's most exposed muscle-and-skin junctions, so it naturally takes the body-part radical. Compare 脸 (face), 腰 (waist), 腿 (leg) - all anatomy under it.
phonetic
孛 bó
comet; sudden
孛 supplies the sound, unchanged. It is rare standalone today (it once named a kind of brightly flaring comet). Its main job is to drive a phonetic series: 脖 (neck), 勃 (vigorous), 渤 (Bohai Sea), 悖 (contradict).

Stroke Order

脖 bó