撑 (chēng): to support, to prop up, to push or move with a pole

撑 (chēng) is a Chinese character meaning “to support.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 掌 (phonetic). It ranks #2135 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 撑 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to support
  2. to prop up
  3. to push or move with a pole

Etymology & Origin

撑

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌掌 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 撑

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
支撑verbzhī chēngto prop up6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
俯卧撑nounfǔ wò chēngpush-up
撑腰verbchēng yāoto support
硬撑yìng chēngto make oneself do sth in spite of adversity, pain etc
撑杆跳nounchēng gān tiàovariant of 撐竿跳|撑竿跳
撑竿跳chēng gān tiàopole vault
撑门面verbchēng mén miànto keep up appearances
撑场面verbchēng chǎng miànto keep up appearances
撑死胆大的,饿死胆小的chēng sǐ dǎn dà de , è sǐ dǎn xiǎo defullness for the bold, famine for the timid (idiom)
吃饱了饭撑的chī bǎo le fàn chēng dehaving nothing better to do
平板支撑nounpíng bǎn zhī chēngplank (exercise)
撑开chēng kāito stretch taut
四肢支撑式sì zhī zhī chēng shìlow plank (yoga pose)
支撑架zhī chēng jiàbracket
吃饱撑着chī bǎo chēng zhehaving nothing better to do
撑死verbchēng sǐfull to the point of bursting
27
Total compounds
59
As first character
22
As last character
19
As middle character

撑 appears in 27 compound words: 59 as the first character, 22 as the last, and 19 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 撑 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

竿gān
0.581540 co-occurrences
支zhī
0.5669,176 co-occurrences
杆gān
0.529584 co-occurrences
柱zhù
0.5161,088 co-occurrences
跳tiào
0.501982 co-occurrences
俯fǔ
0.482196 co-occurrences
卧wò
0.462192 co-occurrences
饼bǐng
0.445108 co-occurrences
腰yāo
0.442228 co-occurrences
伞sǎn
0.43888 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

撑杆跳高chēnggān tiàogāoHSK 7+

pole vault

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请撑出你的证件,配合我们的工作。

qǐng chēng chū nǐ de zhèng jiàn , pèi gě wǒ men de gōng zuò .

Please present your identification and cooperate with our work.

EdigestFeb 2026

...026】发债大时代!每年狂发逾1600亿撑基建 拆解7300亿财储背后的“财技”密...

. . . 0 2 6 fā zhài dà shí dài ! měi nián kuáng fā yú 1 6 0 0 yì chēng jī jiàn chāi jiě 7 3 0 0 yì cái chǔ bèi hòu de cái jì mì . . .

... 026] The era of bond issuance! Every year, more than 160 billion yuan is spent to support infrastructure and dismantle the "financial technology" behind 730 billion treasury savings...

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

外汇基金“开仓”撑北都基建 港元会否再被狙击?

wài huì jī jīn kāi cāng chēng běi dōu jī jiàn gǎng yuán huì fǒu zài bèi 狙 jī ?

Will the Hong Kong dollar be sniped again?

東方日報Feb 2026

龙七公:“万亿大市”挑大梁支撑基本面

lóng qī gōng : wàn yì dà shì tiāo dà liáng zhī chēng jī běn miàn

Long Qigong: "Trillion big city" takes the lead to support fundamentals

BastillepostFeb 2026

从球场到社区 三哥力撑学界足球精英梦

cóng qiú chǎng dào shè qū sān gē lì chēng xué jiè zú qiú jīng yīng mèng

From the stadium to the community, the third brother supports the dream of school football elites

三立新聞網Feb 2026

移植心脏运送遭干冰冻坏 男童苦撑2月亡

yí zhí xīn zāng yùn sòng zāo gān bīng dòng huài nán tóng kǔ chēng 2 yuè wáng

The transplanted heart was damaged by dry ice and the boy died in February

Tatoeba

这条绳子能撑多久?

Zhè tiáo shéngzi néng chēng duōjiǔ?

How long will this rope hold?

Tatoeba

绳子不够牢固,撑不住他。

Shéngzi bù gòu láogù, chēng bù zhù tā.

The rope wasn't strong enough to support him.

Tatoeba

他用手撑着下巴,听着。

Tāyòng shǒu chēng zhe xiàba, tīng zhe.

He was listening with his chin resting on his hand.

Tatoeba

把千斤顶拿过来,我要把汽车撑起来。

Bǎ qiānjīndǐng ná guòlai, wǒ yào bǎ qìchē chēng qǐlai.

Bring the jack over. I'll jack up the car.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced chēng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 撑 (chēng) mean in Chinese?
撑 (chēng) primarily means "to support." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2135 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 撑 and 下?
撑 (chēng) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 撑 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 撑 have?
撑 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 撑?
The radical associated with 撑 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 撑?
撑 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 掌 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌掌 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 撑?
Common words with 撑 include: 支撑 (zhī chēng, "to prop up"); 俯卧撑 (fǔ wò chēng, "push-up"); 撑腰 (chēng yāo, "to support"); 硬撑 (yìng chēng, "to make oneself do sth in spite of adversity, pain etc"); 撑杆跳 (chēng gān tiào, "variant of 撐竿跳|撑竿跳"). There are over 27 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 撑 (chēng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chēng: 成 (to succeed), 程 (rule), 城 (city, wall), 承 (to bear), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 撑 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 撑 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 撑 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.