班

bān
HSK 3
#882 most
frequent character
team, class, squad, work shift
noun
Measure Word
Measure words:个 gè

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

班 shows a knife 刂 breaking two strings of jade 玨. It first meant to split a piece of jade, with each person keeping half for later verification. The meaning grew to distribute in ancient texts, then to be regularly scheduled, a military unit, and finally a group of equals like a class.

Drawn as: knife breaking jade

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Example Sentences

我们的班有二十个学生。
wǒmen de bān yǒu èrshí gè xuéshēng 。
Our class has twenty students.
他在班里是学习最好的学生。
tāzài bān lǐ shì xuéxí zuìhǎode xuéshēng 。
He is the best student in the class.
这个班的老师非常严格。
zhègè bān de lǎoshī fēicháng yángé 。
The teacher in this class is very strict.

Words with similar meanings

班级bānjí
class
This term refers specifically to a class grouping of students, similar in meaning to '班'.
团队tuánduì
team
This word indicates a group working together, often in a collaborative scenario, which can be seen as a broader type of '班'.

Homophones

HSK 3
搬bān
to move, to shift, to remove
扳bān
to pull
般bān
sort, kind, class, way, manner

Words Starting With 班

班主任bān zhǔ rèn
a teacher in charge of a class

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Public Lists with 班

HSK 3
All words for the HSK 3 test
Workplace & Office
Meetings, reports, colleagues, office tools, schedules, HR terms.
School & Education
Classroom items, teaching methods, homework, quizzes, and schedules.