卜

See also: 蔔 and ト

Translingual

Stroke order

Etymology

Historical forms of the character 卜
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bamboo and silk script	Large seal script	Small seal script

Perhaps a pictogram of a crack in an oracle bone, used for divination in ancient China. The word itself (Old Chinese: *puk) may be onomatopoeic in origin.

Han character

卜 (radical 25 卜+0, 2 strokes, cangjie input 卜 (Y), four-corner 2300₀, composition ⿰丨丶)

1. fortune telling
2. prophecy
3. a surname
4. Kangxi radical #25, ⼘ ‎(“divination”).

References

• KangXi: page 157, character 25
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 2774
• Dae Jaweon: page 361, character 15
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 91, character 11
• Unihan data for U+535C

---

Chinese

Etymology 1

simp. and trad.		卜

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): bǔ (bu³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄅㄨˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): buk¹
• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): puk
• Min Nan (POJ): pok / poh

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: bǔ
    • Zhuyin: ㄅㄨˇ
    • Wade-Giles: pu³
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: buu
    • IPA ^(key): /pu²¹⁴/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: buk¹
    • Yale: būk
    • Cantonese Pinyin: buk⁷
    • IPA ^(key): /pʊk̚⁵/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: puk
    • Hakka Romanization System: bug`
    • Hagfa Pinyim: bug⁵
    • IPA: /puk̚²/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: pok / poh
    • Tâi-lô: pok / poh
    • Phofsit Daibuun: pog, poiq
    • IPA (Taipei): /pɔk̚³²/, /poʔ³²/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /pɔk̚³²/, /pɤʔ³²/

---

• Dialectal data▼

Variety	Location	edit 卜
Mandarin	Beijing	/pu²¹⁴/
	Harbin	/pʰu²¹³/
	Tianjin	/pʰu¹³/
	Jinan	/pu⁵⁵/
	Qingdao	/pu⁵⁵/
	Zhengzhou	/pu⁵³/
	Xi'an	/po²¹/
	Xining	/pv̩⁴⁴/
	Yinchuan	/puə¹³/ 姓 /pu¹³/ ～算子
	Lanzhou	/pə¹³/
	Ürümqi	/pʰu⁵¹/
	Wuhan	/pʰu²¹³/
	Chengdu	/pu¹³/
	Guiyang	/pʰu²¹/
	Kunming	/pʰu³¹/
	Nanjing	/puʔ⁵/
	Hefei	/pʰəʔ⁵/
Jin	Taiyuan	/pəʔ²/
	Pingyao	/pʌʔ¹³/
	Hohhot	/pəʔ⁴³/ ～拉 /pei⁵⁵/ 萝～
Wu	Shanghai	/poʔ⁵/
	Suzhou	/poʔ⁵/
	Hangzhou	/pʰoʔ⁵/
	Wenzhou	/po²¹³/
Hui	Shexian	/pɔʔ²¹/
	Tunxi	/pʰu⁵/
Xiang	Changsha	/pʰu²⁴/
	Xiangtan	/pʰu²⁴/
Gan	Nanchang
Hakka	Meixian	/puk̚¹/
	Taoyuan	/puk̚²²/
Cantonese	Guangzhou	/pok̚⁵/
	Nanning	/pʰuk̚⁵⁵/
	Hong Kong	/puk̚⁵/
Min	Xiamen (Min Nan)	/pɔk̚³²/ /poʔ³²/
	Fuzhou (Min Dong)	/pɔuʔ²³/
	Jian'ou (Min Bei)	/pʰu²⁴/
	Shantou (Min Nan)	/pok̚²/
	Haikou (Min Nan)	/ʔbɔk̚⁵/ /ʔbak̚⁵/

---

• Middle Chinese: /puk̚/▼

Rime
Character	卜
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	幫 (1)
Final (韻)	屋 (3)
Tone (調)	Checked (Ø)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	博木切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/puk̚/
Pan Wuyun	/puk̚/
Shao Rongfen	/puk̚/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/pəwk̚/
Li Rong	/puk̚/
Wang Li	/puk̚/
Bernard Karlgren	/puk̚/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	bu

• Old Chinese▼

  (Baxter-Sagart): /*pˤok/

  (Zhengzhang): /*poːɡ/

Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	卜
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	bǔ
Middle Chinese	‹ puwk ›
Old Chinese	/*pˤok/
English	divine (v.)
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; * Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	卜
Reading #	1/1
No.	998
Phonetic component	卜
Rime group	屋
Rime subdivision	0
Corresponding MC rime	卜
Old Chinese	/*poːɡ/

Verb

卜

1. (literary) to divine

References

• “Entry #64”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (in Chinese and Min Nan), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2011.

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of 卜 – see 蔔. (This character, 卜, is the simplified form of 蔔.)

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Etymology 3

For pronunciation and definitions of 卜 – see 欲. (This character, 卜, is a variant form of 欲.)

---

Japanese

Kanji

卜

(“Jinmeiyō” kanji used for names)

Readings

• Goon: ほく (hoku)
• Kan’on: ほく (hoku)
• Kan’yōon: ぼく (boku)
• Kun: うらなう (uranau), うらない (uranai)

Noun

卜 ‎(hiragana うらない, romaji uranai)

1. Alternative form of 占い

卜 ‎(hiragana ぼく, romaji boku)

1. (archaic) fortune-telling

卜 ‎(hiragana うら, romaji ura)

1. (archaic) fortune-telling

---

Korean

Hanja

卜 • ‎(bok) (hangeul 복, revised bok, McCune-Reischauer pok, Yale pok)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

---

Vietnamese

Han character

卜

Readings

• âm: bốc, cốc, bặc, bóc, vốc
• nghĩa (literal meaning): ăn bốc

Verb

卜

1. ăn bốc (咹卜, to eat with the fingers)

References

• Nôm Foundation
• Vietnamese Dictionaries: Viet Fun, Viet Dictionary