班

bān

② + 王

HSK 2.0Level 3

HSK 3.0Level 2

Definitions

bān (noun) class; team; group

bān (noun) work shift

bān (noun) ranking

Etymology

Depicts a knife (刂) cutting a gem into two halves (玨), based on the original meaning "to divide". The meaning later shifted to "division", "group", and "team".

About

This character is an ideogrammatic compound with two 玉 components (appearing as 王 when used as radicals) separated by a 刀 component, specifically written as the vertical 刂. Its original meaning referred to cutting a piece of jade into two equal halves. From this act of division, the sense expanded to organizing people into groups or ranks, eventually becoming the standard term for a class, squad, or work shift.

Etymology Hide

Bronze Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Seal Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)

Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Seal Xin dynasty (9-23 AD)

Clerical Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical Cao Wei (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)

Traditional Modern

Simplified Modern

Example Sentences Hide

妈妈去上班了。

Māma qù shàngbān le.

Mom went to work.

我们班有三十个学生。

Wǒmen bān yǒu sānshí gè xuéshēng.

Our class has thirty students.

爸爸每天加班很晚。

Bàba měitiān jiābān hěn wǎn.

Dad works overtime every day until late.

航班延误了三个小时。

Hángbān yánwù le sān gè xiǎoshí.

The flight was delayed for three hours.

公司提供免费的班车服务。

Gōngsī tígōng miǎnfèi de bānchē fúwù.

The company provides free shuttle bus service.

她参加了周末的培训班。

Tā cānjiā le zhōumò de péixùn bān.

She attended the weekend training class.

这个项目的班期安排得很紧凑。

Zhège xiàngmù de bānqī ānpái de hěn jǐncòu.

The schedule for this project is arranged very tightly.

由于天气原因，多个航班被取消。

Yóuyú tiānqì yuányīn, duō gè hángbān bèi qǔxiāo.

Due to weather reasons, multiple flights were canceled.

Related Characters

Component: ②

Component: 王

班