白 (bái): white

Meanings

1 white
2 blank; empty
3 in vain; for nothing

Characters

白

bái

white; blank; clear

Examples

HSK 1

她穿白衣服。

Tā chuān bái yīfu.

She is wearing white clothes.

HSK 1

我白等了一天。

Wǒ bái děng le yì tiān.

I waited for nothing the whole day.

HSK 2

他的头发已经全白了。

Tā de tóufa yǐjīng quán bái le.

His hair has already turned completely white.

Tips

culture

In Chinese culture, white (白) is traditionally associated with death and mourning - the opposite of Western culture. White is worn at funerals, while red is the color of celebrations.

usage

白 as an adverb means 'in vain' or 'for nothing': 白费 (waste effort), 白说 (said for nothing), 白跑一趟 (made a trip for nothing).

Components

ideograph

丿 piě

ray of light

Top slant - read as a ray of light rising above the sun.

semantic

日 rì

sun

The sun underneath - sunrise spilling its first light gives the 'bright/white' meaning. (Etymology debated: some scholars read 白 as a grain of rice or a thumb, but the sun-with-ray reading is the common mnemonic.)

Radical

White Kangxi #106

Modest productivity as a meaning radical, but visually it is everywhere as a structural piece. Direct compounds with a 'white / pale / clear' sense include 皎 (bright), 皇 (emperor, originally 'shining'), and 皑 (snowy white). Many other characters carry 白 simply as a building block (百, 的, 拍).