How to Write 磅 (bàng) — Meaning “pound (unit of weight)”

Picture a stone (石) on one side (旁) of a scale, and when you place it, you hear a 'bang' sound as it hits the platform. The stone reminds you of weight, and '旁' sounds like 'bang' to recall the pronunciation.

Write the left radical 石 first: horizontal stroke, left-falling, right-falling, then the mouth-shaped part. Then write the right side 旁: beginning with a dot on top, followed by a horizontal, a left-falling, and the lower part 方. A common mistake is making the left radical too wide or forgetting the dot at the top of 旁.

The right side of 磅 is 旁 (side), while 硼 has 朋 (friend) and 碇 has 定 (fixed). Their meanings differ: 硼 is the chemical boron, 碇 is a stone anchor, and 磅 is a unit of weight. Visually, 磅's right side has a dot at the top, unlike the other two.

磅 is used to indicate weight in pounds, especially in Taiwan and Hong Kong where imperial units remain common. You'll see it on platform scales (磅秤) or in phrases like 过磅 (to weigh on a scale). In mainland China, metric grams and kilograms are standard, but pounds still appear in international trade and some daily contexts.

Common words containing 磅 include: 磅秤 (bàng chèng) — platform scale; 磅数 (bàng shù) — weight in pounds; 过磅 (guò bàng) — to weigh (on a scale).