How to Write 趵 (bào) — Meaning “to leap; to jump”

Imagine a person using their foot (足) to leap over a spoon (勺, which looks like a spoon). The spoon shape helps you recall the right side, and the foot reminds you that 趵 means "to jump" or "to leap."

Write the left radical 足 first: it has 7 strokes, starting with the mouth-like top, then a vertical, then two horizontal strokes, followed by a left-falling stroke and a right-falling stroke. The right part 勺 is 3 strokes: a short left-falling stroke, a horizontal hook, and a dot inside. A common mistake is to make the right side too large or to forget the dot inside 勺.

趵 (bào) means "to leap" and has the foot radical and 勺 on the right. 趴 (pā) means "to lie on one's stomach" and has a different right side (八). 趸 (dǔn) means "wholesale" or "to store" and has the radical 足 but a different right side (屯). Visually, 趵 has a dot inside 勺, while 趴 has 八 (eight) and 趸 has 屯.

趵 is rarely used alone but appears in the famous place name 趵突泉 (Bàotū Quán), the Baotu Spring in Jinan, Shandong. The name means "jumping and gushing spring" because water leaps upward from the ground. This spring is one of China's most famous natural springs and a major tourist attraction.

Common words containing 趵 include: 趵突泉 (bào tū quán) — Baotu Spring (a famous spring in Jinan); 趵突 (bào tū) — jumping; leaping; 趵趵 (bào bào) — sound of footsteps.