鞍 (ān): (bound form) saddle

鞍 (ān) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) saddle.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 革 (semantic) and 安 (phonetic). It ranks #3307 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 鞍 leather. Its radical form 革 (leather) appears in many related characters such as 鞋 (xié, shoe), 革 (gé, animal hide), 靶 (bǎ, target).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) saddle

Etymology & Origin

鞍

pictophoneticleather

Decomposition: ⿰革安 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

Practice writing 鞍 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
马鞍nounmǎ ānsaddle
鞍马nounān mǎpommel horse (gymnastics)
鞍前马后ān qián mǎ hòuto follow everywhere
鞍子nounān zisaddle
马鞍山市mǎ ān shān shìMa'anshan, prefecture-level city in Anhui Province 安徽省
马鞍山mǎ ān shānsee 馬鞍山市|马鞍山市
鞍山市ān shān shìAnshan, prefecture-level city in Liaoning Province 遼寧省|辽宁省
鞍马劳顿phraseān mǎ láo dùntravel-worn
鞍点ān diǎnsaddle point (math.), a critical point of a function of several variables that is neither a maximum nor a minimum
鞍山proper-nounān shānsee 鞍山市
鞍韂ān chàna saddle with a saddle blanket
鞍鞯ān jiān(literary) a saddle with a saddle blanket
12
Total compounds
75
As first character
8
As last character
17
As middle character

鞍 appears in 12 compound words: 75 as the first character, 8 as the last, and 17 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 鞍 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

山shān
0.48723 co-occurrences
野yě
0.48610 co-occurrences
撞zhuàng
0.44910 co-occurrences
马mǎ
0.43020 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

鞍马劳顿ānmǎláodùn

to be travel-worn; to be fatigued by a long journey

phrase

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

这里不仅离南京市中心不远,还毗邻常州、镇江与安徽马鞍山,短途游客源丰富。

zhè lǐ bù jǐn lí nán jīng shì zhōng xīn bù yuǎn , hái pí lín cháng zhōu , zhèn jiāng yǔ ān huī mǎ ān shān , duǎn tú yóu kè yuán fēng fù .

Not only is this area not far from downtown Nanjing, but it’s also close to Changzhou, Zhenjiang, and Ma’anshan in Anhui Province, making it a popular destination for day-trippers.

爱范儿Aug 2026

模型越强,越需要一副好鞍 有时候,一匹马奔跑得越猛越快,想要驾驭的难度也随之加大。

mó xíng yuè qiáng , yuè xū yào yī fù hǎo ān yǒu shí hòu , yī pǐ mǎ bēn pǎo dé yuè měng yuè kuài , xiǎng yào jià yù de nán dù yě suí zhī jiā dà .

The more powerful the model, the more it needs a good saddle. Sometimes, the harder and faster a horse runs, the harder it is to control.

中国新闻网·体育Aug 2026

第二届徽青赛马鞍山队主教练姚文武坦言。

dì èr jiè huī qīng sài mǎ ān shān duì zhǔ jiào liàn yáo wén wǔ tǎn yán .

Yao Wenwu, head coach of the Ma'anshan team at the 2nd Huqing Competition, admitted.

中国新闻网·体育Jul 2026

队员冯天行说,鞍钢、山东这些传统强队整体素质都很强,“我们还在努力追赶”。

duì yuán féng tiān xíng shuō , ān gāng , shān dōng zhè xiē chuán tǒng qiáng duì zhěng tǐ sù zhì dōu hěn qiáng , wǒ men hái zài nǔ lì zhuī gǎn .

Team member Feng Tianxing said that traditional powerhouses like Ansteel and Shandong are very strong overall, adding, “We’re still working hard to catch up.”

中国新闻网·生活May 2026

马鞍山市消防救援局秀山特勤站指导员 宋雄弢: 首先这种双绞线里面的导丝是比较细的。

mǎ ān shān shì xiāo fáng jiù yuán jú xiù shān tè qín zhàn zhǐ dǎo yuán sòng xióng 弢 : shǒu xiān zhè zhǒng shuāng jiǎo xiàn lǐ miàn de dǎo sī shì bǐ jiào xì de .

Song Xiongtao, Instructor at the Xiushan Special Operations Station of the Ma'anshan Municipal Fire and Rescue Bureau: First of all, the conductors inside this twisted-pair cable are relatively thin.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 革 (leather) component

革 Radical Family — Characters sharing the leather radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced ān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 鞍 (ān) mean in Chinese?
鞍 (ān) primarily means "(bound form) saddle." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3307 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 鞍 have?
鞍 is written with 15 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 鞍?
The radical associated with 鞍 is 革 (leather). This radical appears in many characters related to leather.
What are the components of 鞍?
鞍 is composed of: 革 (semantic), 安 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰革安 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 鞍?
Common words with 鞍 include: 马鞍 (mǎ ān, "saddle"); 鞍马 (ān mǎ, "pommel horse (gymnastics)"); 鞍前马后 (ān qián mǎ hòu, "to follow everywhere"); 鞍子 (ān zi, "saddle"); 马鞍山市 (mǎ ān shān shì, "Ma'anshan, prefecture-level city in Anhui Province 安徽省"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 鞍 (ān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation ān: 氨 (ammonia). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 鞍 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 鞍 and the traditional form is 鞌.

Practice writing 鞍 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.