Welcome to ChineseFrequencyDictionary.com. Enter a Chinese character or compound Chinese word to lookup. If a valid dictionary entry is found, frequency information will be shown below:

Chinese Character/Word:

Definition(s) for: 本义

Hanzi Pinyin Definition(s)
本义 běn yì - original meaning
- literal sense

List Ranking:

Where rank 1 is most common, and higher numbers are less common.

HSK 2 Level (2012) HSK 3 Band (2022) SUBTLEX-CH BeijingUni Global BeijingUni Weibo
- - 58,715 41,689 59,551

Individual Character Breakdown:

Simp Pinyin Eng
běn- (bound form) root; stem
- (bound form) origin; source
- (bound form) one's own; this
- (bound form) this; the current (year etc)
- (bound form) original
- (bound form) inherent
- originally; initially
- capital; principal
- classifier for books, periodicals, files etc
- surname Yi
- (Tw) Italy (abbr. for 義大利|义大利[Yi4da4li4])
- justice
- righteousness
- meaning
- foster (father etc)
- adopted
- artificial (tooth, limb etc)
- relationship
- friendship

Other Words Containing 本义

Sorted by the 'SUBTLEX-CH' rank because that seems like the most reliable. Words without a SUBTLEX-CH rank are ignored for being too rare.

Word HSK 2 Level (2012) HSK 3 Band (2022) SUBTLEX-CH BeijingUni Global BeijingUni Weibo
本义 - - 58,715 41,689 59,551