How to Write 底 (dǐ) — Meaning “bottom; base”

Imagine a wide roof (广) covering a low table with three short legs (the bottom part of 氐). The roof protects the 'base' of the table, and the two little dots on the left side of 氐 look like items resting on the floor underneath. This picture helps you recall that 底 means 'bottom' or 'base'.

Start with the wide left-to-right stroke of 广, then write 氐: first the horizontal line for the base, then the vertical and the two dots on the left. A common mistake is making the 广 too narrow or forgetting the two dots inside 氐. Keep 广 wide enough to cover the part below, and ensure the bottom stroke of 氐 is level.

底 means 'bottom' or 'base', while 庄 (zhuāng) means 'village' or 'farmstead' and uses 土 (earth) instead of 氐. 㢆 is a very rare ancient character meaning 'same as 廛' (a market or dwelling); it has 里 (inside) under the roof. In daily use, you will only encounter 底 and 庄, and they are never interchangeable.

You often see 底 in words like 月底 (month-end), 底下 (underneath), and 到底 (after all / on earth). The phrase 到底 is especially common in questions to express urgency or curiosity, such as 你到底去不去? (Are you going or not, after all?). It appears in both formal and informal settings for talking about physical or temporal 'bottoms'.

Common words containing 底 include: 到底 (dào dǐ) — After all / On earth (emphatic).; 底下 (dǐ xià) — underneath; below; 月底 (yuè dǐ) — end of the month.