乒 (pīng) · (onomatopoeia) ping, ding (sharp metallic sound)

Meanings

1 (onomatopoeia) ping, ding (sharp metallic sound)
2 short for 乒乓 / 乒乓球 (table tennis)

Characters

乒

pīng

ping (onomatopoeia); table tennis (abbr.)

Examples

HSK 5

他是国家乒队的成员。

Tā shì guójiā pīng duì de chéngyuán.

He is a member of the national table-tennis team.

HSK 7-9

乒的一声，子弹打在铁皮上。

Pīng de yì shēng, zǐdàn dǎ zài tiěpí shàng.

Ping! The bullet struck the metal sheet.

Tips

memory

Look at the character: 乒 is 兵 (soldier) with the right leg cut off; its mate 乓 (pāng) has the left leg cut. The pair is a visual pun - 'soldier missing a leg' for the ping-pong sound. The sport 乒乓球 became China's 国球 (national ball) after the 1971 'ping-pong diplomacy' opened US-China relations.

Components

radical

丿 piě

left-falling stroke

The single left-falling stroke at the bottom is the indexing radical and the only thing distinguishing 乒 from 乓. Read it visually as the lone surviving leg of 兵 (soldier) - 乒 lost its right foot, 乓 lost its left, mimicking the pock-pock of ping-pong.

semantic

丘 qiū

hill; mound

丘 sits on top, supplying the bulk of the shape. 乒 is a graphic-pun derivative: take 兵 (soldier) and chip away the lower-left foot stroke, leaving a 丘-like body that captures the sound of one paddle hitting a ball. Pairs with 乓 (the missing-right-foot twin).