攒 (cuán): to bring together, to collect, to hoard

攒 (cuán) is a Chinese character meaning “to bring together.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 赞 (phonetic). It ranks #2934 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 攒 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 bring together
  2. to collect
  3. to hoard

Etymology & Origin

攒

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌赞 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
积攒verbjī zǎnto save bit by bit
万头攒动wàn tóu cuán dòng(idiom) bustling with many people
众星攒月zhòng xīng cuán yuèsee 眾星捧月|众星捧月
攒集verbcuán jíto gather
攒钱verbzǎn qiánto save up money
攒聚verbcuán jùto gather
攒劲verbzǎn jìn(dialect) to muster strength
拼攒pīn cuánto assemble
攒簇cuán cùto gather closely together
9
Total compounds
56
As first character
22
As last character
22
As middle character

攒 appears in 9 compound words: 56 as the first character, 22 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 攒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

尖jiān
0.593600 co-occurrences
檐yán
0.560140 co-occurrences
顶dǐng
0.552454 co-occurrences
积jī
0.477400 co-occurrences
钱qián
0.442132 co-occurrences
簇cù
0.41512 co-occurrences
角jiǎo
0.407370 co-occurrences
亭tíng
0.39754 co-occurrences
圆yuán
0.38846 co-occurrences
够gòu
0.38146 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

万头攒动wàn tóu cuán dòngHSK 7+

(idiom) bustling with many people

phrase
众星攒月zhòng xīng cuán yuèHSK 7+

see 眾星捧月|众星捧月

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他攒了一个电话,约朋友晚上一起吃饭。

tā cuán le yī gě diàn huà , yāo péng yǒu wǎn shǎng yī qǐ chī fàn .

He made a phone call to arrange dinner with a friend that evening.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

陈斌 摄 9时许,崇木凼村花瑶古寨牌楼前人头攒动,热闹非凡。

chén 斌 shè 9 shí xǔ , chóng mù 凼 cūn huā Yáo gǔ zhài pái lóu qián rén tóu cuán dòng , rè nào fēi fán .

Photo by Chen Bin. Around 9:00 a.m., a large crowd gathered in front of the archway at the ancient Hayao village of Chongmudang, creating a lively atmosphere.

爱范儿Aug 2026

抖音支付上线“馋猫外卖”攒钱小游戏 抖音近期上线“馋猫外卖”小游戏。

dǒu yīn zhī fù shàng xiàn chán māo wài mài cuán qián xiǎo yóu xì dǒu yīn jìn qī shàng xiàn chán māo wài mài xiǎo yóu xì .

Douyin Pay Launches "Greedy Cat Takeout" Money-Saving Mini-Game Douyin recently launched the "Greedy Cat Takeout" mini-game.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

因喜欢读书,王计兵用攒下的钱,从打折书店买来二手书和影视剧光碟,在村口摆起了旧书摊。

yīn xǐ huān dòu shū , wáng jì bīng yòng cuán xià de qián , cóng dǎ zhé shū diàn mǎi lái èr shǒu shū hé yǐng shì jù guāng dié , zài cūn kǒu bǎi qǐ le jiù shū tān .

Because he loved reading, Wang Jibing used the money he had saved to buy used books and DVDs of movies and TV shows from a discount bookstore, and set up a used book stall at the entrance to the village.

IT之家Aug 2026

一个会话跑二三十轮,缓存命中攒下来的折扣是天文数字。

yī gè huì huà pǎo èr sān shí lún , huǎn cún mìng zhōng cuán xià lái de zhé kòu shì tiān wén shǔ zì .

A single session runs through twenty or thirty rounds, and the savings accumulated from cache hits are astronomical.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

战争爆发,他被迫卷入,从只想攒钱回家的普通人,变成战火中一群孤儿的守护者。

zhàn zhēng bào fā , tā bèi pò juǎn rù , cóng zhī xiǎng cuán qián huí jiā de pǔ tōng rén , biàn chéng zhàn huǒ zhōng yī qún gū ér de shǒu hù zhě .

When war broke out, he was forced into it, transforming from an ordinary man who had only wanted to save money to go home into the guardian of a group of orphans caught in the midst of the conflict.

Tatoeba

你应该经常为了雨天攒钱。

Nǐ yīnggāi jīngcháng wèile yǔtiān cuán qián.

You should always save money for a rainy day.

Tatoeba

他在上个景气时期炒股攒下了一笔钱。

Tā zài shàngge jǐngqì shíqī chǎogǔ cuán xià le yī bǐ qián.

He amassed a fortune in stock trading during the last boom.

Tatoeba

我工作是为了攒大学学费。

Wǒ gōngzuò shì wèile cuán dàxué xuéfèi.

I am working to save for my college tuition.

Tatoeba

挣钱容易攒钱难。

Zhēng qián róngyì cuán qián nán.

It is easier to get money than to keep it.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced cuán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 攒 (cuán) mean in Chinese?
攒 (cuán) primarily means "to bring together." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2934 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 攒 have?
攒 is written with 19 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 攒?
The radical associated with 攒 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 攒?
攒 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 赞 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌赞 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 攒?
Common words with 攒 include: 积攒 (jī zǎn, "to save bit by bit"); 万头攒动 (wàn tóu cuán dòng, "(idiom) bustling with many people"); 众星攒月 (zhòng xīng cuán yuè, "see 眾星捧月|众星捧月"); 攒集 (cuán jí, "to gather"); 攒钱 (zǎn qián, "to save up money"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 攒 (cuán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cuán: 窜 (to flee). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 攒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 攒 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 攒 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.