(cán): to destroy, to spoil, to ruin

(cán) is a Chinese character meaning “to destroy.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1148 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, death. Its radical form (death) appears in many related characters such as (, to die), (shū, (literary) to kill), (zhí, to grow).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to destroy
  2. to spoil
  3. to ruin

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticdeath

Decomposition: ⿰歹戋 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nouncán jídisabled6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
cán rěncruel
cán kùcruel
cán háiremains
cán liúto remain
cán bàobrutal
cán jí réndisabled person
cán shāto massacre
cán júendgame (in chess)
cán fèideformity
xiōng cánsavage
zì xiāng cán shāto massacre one another (idiom)
cán liú wùremnant
cán yúremnant
cán hàito injure
cuī cánto ravage
88
Total compounds
65
As first character
14
As last character
22
As middle character

appears in 88 compound words: 65 as the first character, 14 as the last, and 22 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.65330,195 co-occurrences
0.62614,314 co-occurrences
rěn
0.5237,440 co-occurrences
0.50412,324 co-occurrences
bāng
0.4995,970 co-occurrences
liú
0.48316,967 co-occurrences
zhā
0.4751,188 co-occurrences
ào
0.46911,985 co-occurrences
cuī
0.4552,526 co-occurrences
zhī
0.4451,848 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (19)

bài liǔ cán huāHSK 7+

broken flower, withered willow (idiom); fig. fallen woman

phrase
bǎo cán shǒu quēHSK 6+

conservative; to preserve the outmoded

phrase
cánbīngbàijiàngHSK 6+

defeated troops

phrase
cáncháshèngfànHSK 6+

remains of a meal; leftovers; crumbs from the table

phrase
cán dōng là yuèHSK 7+

final days of the lunar year

phrase
cánhuābàiliǔHSK 7+

impure woman, such as one who leads a promiscuous life, or one who has been abused and abandoned; fallen woman

phrase
cán mín hài wùHSK 6+

to harm people and damage property (idiom)

phrase
fēngzhúcánniánHSK 7+

old and ailing like a candle guttering in the wind

phrase
gǒuyáncánchuǎnHSK 7+

to linger; to drag on one's feeble existence

phrase
gǔ ròu xiāng cánHSK 6+

close kindred slaughter one another (idiom); internecine strife

phrase
lǎo cán yóu jìHSK 6+

The Travels of Lao Tsan, novel by late Qing novelist Liu E 劉鶚|刘鹗[Liu2 E4]

phrase
zìxiāngcánshāHSK 6+

to slaughter each other; to massacre one another

phrase

Showing 12 of 19 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个字的意思与它的部首有关。

zhè gě cán zì de yì sī yú tā de bù shǒu yǒu guān .

The meaning of this incomplete character is related to its radical.

99 健康网Feb 2026

男生小便后甩一甩能预防包皮垢吗?减少尿液留降低刺激吗

nán shēng xiǎo biàn hòu shuǎi yī shuǎi néng yù fáng bāo pí 垢 ma ? jiǎn shǎo niào yè cán liú jiàng dī cì jī ma

Can a boy's shook after urinating prevent smegma? Reduces urine residue and reduces irritation

99 健康网Feb 2026

男生小便后甩一甩能减少异味吗?尿液留少则氨味轻吗

nán shēng xiǎo biàn hòu shuǎi yī shuǎi néng jiǎn shǎo yì wèi ma ? niào yè cán liú shǎo zé 氨 wèi qīng ma

Can a boy shake after urinating reduce odor? Is the smell of ammonia lighter if there is less urine residue?

99 健康网Feb 2026

男生小便完甩一下和膀胱排空有关吗?确保余尿最少对吗

nán shēng xiǎo biàn wán shuǎi yī xià hé bǎng 胱 pái kōng yǒu guān ma ? què bǎo cán yú niào zuì shǎo duì ma

Is it related to bladder emptying after a boy urinating? Make sure residual urine is minimal, right?

English News - RthkFeb 2026

落马洲5只狗疑中毒亡警方列“酷对待动物”跟进

luò mǎ zhōu 5 zhī gǒu yí zhōng dú wáng jǐng fāng liè cán kù duì dài dòng wù gēn jìn

5 dogs in Lok Ma Chau were suspected of being poisoned and died, and the police listed "cruelty to animals" to follow up

BastillepostFeb 2026

落马洲5地盘狗只疑中毒连环死亡 警列“酷对待动物”调查未有人被捕

luò mǎ zhōu 5 dì pán gǒu zhī yí zhōng dú lián huán sǐ wáng jǐng liè cán kù duì dài dòng wù diào chá wèi yǒu rén bèi bǔ

Dogs suspected of being poisoned and killed in a series of deaths at 5 sites in Lok Ma Chau No one was arrested during the investigation of "cruelty to animals"

Tatoeba

可怜的人民任凭暴的独裁者处置。

Kělián de rénmín rènpíng cánbào de dúcáizhě chǔzhì.

The poor people were at the mercy of the cruel dictator.

Tatoeba

我不忍目睹这种酷的行径。

Wǒ bù rěn mùdǔ zhèzhǒng cánkù de xíngjìng.

I cannot abide to see such cruelty.

Tatoeba

船的骸从海底被打捞上来。

Chuán de cánhái cóng hǎidǐ bèi dǎlāo shànglái.

The wreckage of the ship was salvaged after it had gone to Davy Jones's locker.

Tatoeba

妈妈有一张缺的脸。

Māma yǒu yī zhāng cánquē de liǎn.

Mama had a crippled face.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the death radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced cán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 残 (cán) mean in Chinese?
残 (cán) primarily means "to destroy." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1148 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 残 and 浅?
残 (cán) and 浅 (qiǎn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 歹 vs 氵 (same 戋 component).
How many strokes does 残 have?
残 is written with 10 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 残?
The radical associated with 残 is 歹 (death). This radical appears in many characters related to death.
What are the components of 残?
残 is composed of: 歹 (semantic), 戋 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰歹戋 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 残?
Common words with 残 include: 残忍 (cán rěn, "cruel"); 残酷 (cán kù, "cruel"); 残骸 (cán hái, "remains"); 残留 (cán liú, "to remain"); 残疾 (cán jí, "disabled"). There are over 88 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 残 (cán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cán: 参 (to take part in), 餐 (meal), 惭 (ashamed), 惨 (miserable), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 残 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 残 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.