篡 (cuàn): to seize, to usurp

篡 (cuàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to seize.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical 竹 (bamboo). It ranks #3293 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 竹 bamboo16 strokesFrequency #3293

Definitions

  1. to seize
  2. to usurp

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
篡改cuàn gǎito tamper with
篡夺cuàn duóto usurp
篡权cuàn quánto usurp power
篡位cuàn wèito seize the throne
篡军cuàn jūnto usurp the military
篡立cuàn lìto become an unlawful ruler
篡政cuàn zhèngto usurp political power
篡党cuàn dǎngto usurp the leadership of the party
篡弑cuàn shìto commit regicide
篡窃cuàn qièto usurp
篡贼cuàn zéiusurper
篡逆cuàn nìto rebel
12
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

篡 appears in 12 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

篡字由16笔画组成，结构很巧妙。

cuàn zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "篡" consists of 16 strokes and has a very ingenious structure.

Orientaldaily MyApr 2026

国盟趁全球危机再密谋篡权? 吴家良:人民不想再“举白旗”

guó méng chèn quán qiú wēi jī zài mì móu cuàn quán ? wú jiā liáng : rén mín bù xiǎng zài jǔ bái qí

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 篡 (cuàn) mean in Chinese?
篡 (cuàn) primarily means "to seize." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3293 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 篡 have?
篡 is written with 16 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 篡?
The radical associated with 篡 is 竹 (bamboo). This radical appears in many characters related to bamboo.
What are common words containing 篡?
Common words with 篡 include: 篡改 (cuàn gǎi, "to tamper with"); 篡夺 (cuàn duó, "to usurp"); 篡权 (cuàn quán, "to usurp power"); 篡位 (cuàn wèi, "to seize the throne"); 篡军 (cuàn jūn, "to usurp the military"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
Is 篡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 篡 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 篡 with real-time feedback

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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.