搏 (bó) · to fight; to wrestle

Meanings

1 to fight; to wrestle
2 to struggle
3 to beat; to throb (of pulse)

Characters

搏

bó

to fight; to struggle; to beat

Examples

HSK 6

心脏在搏动。

Xīnzàng zài bódòng.

The heart is beating.

HSK 7-9

他们在拳击场上拼搏。

Tāmen zài quánjī chǎngshàng pīnbó.

They are fighting hard in the boxing ring.

HSK 7-9

他一生都在和命运搏斗。

Tā yìshēng dōu zài hé mìngyùn bódòu.

He struggled against fate his whole life.

Tips

mistakes

Don't confuse 搏 (bó, to fight/struggle) with 博 (bó, broad/abundant). 搏 has the hand radical 扌 because it involves physical struggle; 博 has 十 and means 'broad' as in 博物馆 (museum).

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form)

Hand radical on the left - the indexing radical. Fighting, wrestling, and grappling are hand-driven actions, so 扌 anchors 搏 in the same family as 拳 (fist), 打 (hit), 抓 (grab), 拼 (vie). Without it, the right-side phonetic alone would not encode the combat sense.

phonetic

尃 fū

to spread out (here phonetic)

Right side 尃 supplies the sound (fū → bó, labial drift). The same phonetic also powers 博 (bó, broad) and 膊 (bó, arm) - a tight bó-family. Distinguishes 搏 visually from 博 by the radical: hand-fighting versus ten-broad.