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Mythic Mandarin

此起彼伏 (cǐ qǐ bǐ fú): meaning and stroke order

此起彼伏 (cǐ qǐ bǐ fú) means up here, down there (idiom); to rise and fall in succession.

此起彼伏

Simplified
此起彼伏
Traditional
此起彼伏 (same form)
Pinyin
cǐ qǐ bǐ fú

Stroke order of 此起彼伏

此

  • cǐ this; these
  • 6 strokes

Stroke by stroke

起

  • qǐ to rise; to raise
  • 10 strokes

Stroke by stroke

彼

  • bǐ that; those
  • 8 strokes

Stroke by stroke

伏

  • Fú surname Fu
  • fú to lean over; to fall (go down)
  • 6 strokes

Stroke by stroke

Meaning of 此起彼伏

  1. cǐ qǐ bǐ fú
    • up here, down there (idiom); to rise and fall in succession
    • no sooner one subsides, the next arises
    • repeating continuously
    • occurring again and again (of applause, fires, waves, protests, conflicts, uprisings etc)

Radicals of the characters

此
Radical 止 (Kangxi radical 77) · 6 strokes · 止 on the left, 匕 on the right
起
Radical 走 (Kangxi radical 156) · 10 strokes · built from 走 and 己
彼
Radical 彳 (Kangxi radical 60) · 8 strokes · 彳 on the left, 皮 on the right
伏
Radical 人 (Kangxi radical 9) · 6 strokes · 亻 on the left, 犬 on the right

Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan database. Structure: the shapes a character is written with (BabelStone IDS), not necessarily parts that carry meaning or sound.

此起彼伏 in our stories

Preview version — Chinese review in progress.

  • 台下掌声雷动，闪光灯此起彼伏，他却突然觉得身边空荡荡的。

    tái xià zhǎngshēng léidòng shǎnguāngdēng cǐqǐ-bǐfú tā què tūrán juéde shēnbiān kōngdàngdàng de

    Below, the applause thundered and flashbulbs went off one after another, yet he suddenly felt the space around him was empty.

    From the story The day he rang the bell HSK 7–9 · Level 7

Stories using 此起彼伏

Dictionary data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Stroke data: Hanzi Writer data, derived from Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License). Animation: Hanzi Writer (MIT licence). Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan (Unicode License v3).