How to Write 俜 (pīng) — Meaning “lonely; to trust (archaic)”

Imagine a lonely person (亻) making a single "ping" sound in an empty space. The right side 甹 can be seen as a person standing alone in a field, reinforcing the meaning of loneliness.

Write the left radical 亻 first: a short left-slanting stroke then a vertical line. For the right side 甹, start with a horizontal stroke, then a vertical stroke crossing through it, a horizontal at bottom, and two small strokes at the top. A common mistake is making the right side too wide or forgetting the small strokes on top.

俜 uses the rare component 甹, while 伯 uses 白 (white) and 估 uses 古 (ancient). In meaning, 俜 is archaic and appears only in literary compounds like 伶俜 (lonely), whereas 伯 (uncle) and 估 (estimate) are common in daily Chinese. Visually, 甹 has a top horizontal and a middle vertical that crosses it, unlike 白 or 古.

俜 is not used alone in modern Chinese and appears almost exclusively in the classical compound 伶俜 (líng pīng), meaning lonely or solitary. You might encounter it in poetry, classical literature, or formal writing, but not in everyday conversation.

Common words containing 俜 include: 伶俜 (líng pīng) — lonely; solitary; 俜伶 (pīng líng) — lonely and helpless; 俜停 (pīng tíng) — graceful and elegant.