璨 (càn): gem

璨 (càn) is a Chinese character meaning “gem.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 王 (structural) and 粲 (structural). It ranks #3081 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 璨 the luster 粲 of a gem 王; 粲 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 王 (jade) appears in many related characters such as 现 (xiàn, to appear), 球 (qiú, ball used for playing games (variant of 球)), 环 (huán, ring).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. gem

Etymology & Origin

璨

ideographicThe luster 粲 of a gem 王; 粲 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰王粲 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
璀璨adjectivecuǐ cànbright
璀璨夺目cuǐ càn duó mùdazzling (idiom)
璨美càn měiresplendent
璨玉càn yùlustrous jade
璨璨adjectivecàn cànvery bright
5
Total compounds
60
As first character
20
As last character
20
As middle character

璨 appears in 5 compound words: 60 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 20 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 璨 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

璀cuǐ
0.9272,122 co-occurrences
柳liǔ
0.405114 co-occurrences
宰zǎi
0.39962 co-occurrences
星xīng
0.383656 co-occurrences
滑huá
0.37492 co-occurrences
夜yè
0.365146 co-occurrences
光guāng
0.364326 co-occurrences
耀yào
0.36460 co-occurrences
僧sēng
0.36044 co-occurrences
俱jù
0.35686 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了璨字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le càn zì de xiáng xì jiě shì .

I looked up the detailed definition of the character "璨" in the dictionary.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

华灯璀璨,乐声铿锵,两岸青年舞者以活力四射的街舞作品拉开晚会帷幕。

huá dēng cuǐ càn , lè shēng 铿 锵 , liǎng àn qīng nián wǔ zhě yǐ huó lì sì shè de jiē wǔ zuò pǐn lā kāi wǎn huì wéi mù .

Amid dazzling lights and pulsating music, young dancers from both sides of the strait kicked off the gala with an energetic street dance performance.

中国新闻网·体育Aug 2026

当晚7时许,璀璨灯光与音乐节奏同频,拉开了夏日尊巴燃动夜的活动序幕。

dāng wǎn 7 shí xǔ , cuǐ càn dēng guāng yǔ yīn lè jié zòu tóng pín , lā kāi le xià rì zūn bā rán dòng yè de huó dòng xù mù .

At around 7 p.m. that evening, dazzling lights pulsed in time with the music, kicking off the “Summer Zumba: Ignite the Night” event.

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Apr 2026

从“满天星斗”到“江流朝宗”——“星汉璀璨 民博藏珍”中华民族文物展的策展思考

cóng mǎn tiān xīng dǒu dào jiāng liú cháo zōng — — xīng hàn cuǐ càn mín bó zàng zhēn zhōng huá mín zú wén wù zhǎn de cè zhǎn sī kǎo

From “A Sky Full of Stars” to “Rivers Flowing Toward the Sea”: Curatorial Reflections on the “Brilliant Milky Way, Treasures of the People’s Museum” Exhibition of Chinese Cultural Relics

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Mar 2026

冰雪之上 群星璀璨——米兰冬残奥会中国体育代表团载誉而归

bīng xuě zhī shàng qún xīng cuǐ càn — — mǐ lán dōng cán ào huì zhōng guó tǐ yù dài biǎo tuán zài yù ér guī

A Glittering Starry Sky Above the Snow and Ice—China’s Delegation Returns Home in Triumph from the Milan Winter Paralympics

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Feb 2026

花灯璀璨铁花飞_光明网

huā dēng cuǐ càn tiě huā fēi guāng míng wǎng

Lanterns are bright, iron flowers fly_Guangming.com

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 璨 (càn) mean in Chinese?
璨 (càn) primarily means "gem." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3081 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 璨 have?
璨 is written with 17 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 璨?
The radical associated with 璨 is 王 (jade). This radical appears in many characters related to jade.
What are the components of 璨?
璨 is composed of: 王 (structural), 粲 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰王粲 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 璨?
Common words with 璨 include: 璀璨 (cuǐ càn, "bright"); 璀璨夺目 (cuǐ càn duó mù, "dazzling (idiom)"); 璨美 (càn měi, "resplendent"); 璨玉 (càn yù, "lustrous jade"); 璨璨 (càn càn, "very bright"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
Is 璨 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 璨 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 璨 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.