冰 (bīng): ice

Meanings

1 ice
2 to chill; to ice

Characters

冰

bīng

ice

Contains the ice radical 冫 (two dots) — itself the source of this radical used in cold-related characters.

Examples

请给我加冰。

Qǐng gěi wǒ jiābīng.

Please add ice for me.

冬天湖面结了冰。

Dōngtiān húmiàn jié le bīng.

The lake froze over in winter.

我要一杯冰水。

Wǒ yào yī bēi bīng shuǐ.

I want a glass of ice water.

Tips

culture

In China, drinking hot water (热水) is the default. Asking for 冰水 (ice water) at restaurants may surprise servers. Many Chinese people believe cold drinks are bad for health.

Components

radical

冫 bīng

ice (radical form)

Two-stroke ice radical on the left — Kangxi #15, also 冰's indexing radical. A reduced form of 仌 (the original ice pictograph showing two crystals stacked). Marks the cold/frozen family: same radical in 冷 (cold), 冻 (freeze), 凉 (cool), 冬 (winter). The radical itself was originally the entire word.

semantic

水 shuǐ

water

Right side 水 (water) — gives the substance: ice is just water in a frozen state. The traditional form 冰 itself is already the modern compound; an even older form was 仌 alone, with 水 added later to specify which substance had frozen. Pure semantic, no phonetic role.