How to Write 败 (bài) — Meaning “to defeat; to fail; to lose”

Imagine that someone hits (攵) your money (贝) and you end up failing or losing — that action is 败. This mental picture of "a hit to your wealth" helps you recall its meaning of defeat or failure.

Start with the left radical 贝: write vertical, horizontal fold, horizontal, left-falling, then a dot (not a hook). Then add the right side 攵: left-falling, horizontal, and finally right-falling. A common mistake is making the right side too large or mixing up the dot in 贝.

败 has 攵 on the right (hitting action), while 贞 has 卜 (divination) on top of 贝, and 负 has 刀 (knife) on top of 贝. Their meanings are also different: 败 is about defeat or failure, 贞 means chaste or loyal, and 负 means to bear or negative.

败 appears in everyday words like 失败 (failure), 打败 (to defeat), and 胜败 (victory or defeat). It is used in sports, business, and personal experiences, and appears in the famous saying 失败是成功之母, which means "failure is the mother of success."

Common words containing 败 include: 失败 (shī bài) — failure / to fail; 打败 (dǎ bài) — to defeat; to beat; 胜败 (shèng bài) — Success or failure; victory or defeat.