腹

fù
noun HSK 7-9 #8,166

Meanings

  1. 1 abdomen; belly; stomach

Examples

HSK 4
Kōngfù búyào chīyào.
Don't take medicine on an empty stomach.
HSK 5
Tā fùbù shòu le shāng.
He was injured in the abdomen.
HSK 7-9
Mǎnfù láosāo yě méiyǒu yòng.
Being full of complaints won't help either.

Tips

usage
腹 is the literary/formal word for belly. In everyday speech, 肚子 (dùzi) is used instead. 腹 appears in many compounds: 腹部 (abdomen), 空腹 (empty stomach), 腹泻 (diarrhea), 满腹 (full of, figurative).
memory
The radical 月 (meat/body part) on the left tells you it's a body part. 复 on the right gives the pronunciation.

Components

radical
⺼ ròu
flesh; body (radical form of 肉)
Left meat-flesh radical - the side-form of 肉 used at the left margin. Visually identical to the moon 月 but a different element: this is a slab of meat, the body-tissue radical. Anchors 腹 in the anatomy family with 胸 (chest), 背 (back), 脏 (organ), 肝 (liver), 肠 (intestine). The radical states bluntly: this character names a part of the body.
phonetic
复 fù
to return; repeat
Right 复 supplies the sound - fù matches the parent reading with no drift. 复 originally depicted a footprint going back and forth on a path, the seed for 'return, repeat.' Same phonetic appears in 覆 (cover), 复 (resume), 馥 (fragrant). For 腹 the picture suits well: the belly is the cavity that repeatedly fills and empties with each breath and meal.

Stroke Order

腹 fù