白面 (báimiàn): wheat flour

Meanings

1 wheat flour
2 white flour
3 (slang) heroin

Characters

白

Examples

妈妈在和白面准备包饺子。

Māma zài huó báimiàn zhǔnbèi bāo jiǎozi.

Mom is kneading flour to make dumplings.

警方查获了一批白面。

Jǐngfāng cháhuò le yī pī báimiàn.

Police seized a batch of heroin.

Tips

usage

Two unrelated meanings live in this word. In a kitchen it's wheat flour; in a crime drama or news report it's slang for heroin. Context disambiguates instantly.

culture

The drug-slang sense comes from heroin's white powder appearance. Police and crime fiction overwhelmingly use 白面 or 白粉 rather than the formal 海洛因 (hǎiluòyīn).