篡 (cuàn): to seize, to usurp

篡 (cuàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to seize.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 算 (phonetic) and 厶 (semantic). It ranks #3293 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 篡 private. Its radical form 竹 (bamboo) appears in many related characters such as 第 (dì, (prefix indicating ordinal number, as in 第六 "sixth")), 等 (děng, to wait for), 笑 (xiào, to laugh).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to seize
  2. to usurp

Etymology & Origin

篡

pictophoneticprivate

Decomposition: ⿱算厶 (layout: top-bottom)

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verbcuàn gǎito tamper with
篡夺verbcuàn duóto usurp
篡权verbcuàn quánto usurp power
篡位verbcuàn 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verbcuàn 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.

爱范儿Aug 2026

但这和开外挂有着本质区别,AI 不会代替我们赢得战斗,更不会篡改游戏数值。

dàn zhè hé kāi wài guà yǒu zhe běn zhì qū bié , A I bù huì dài tì wǒ men yíng dé zhàn dǒu , gēng bù huì cuàn gǎi yóu xì shǔ zhí .

But this is fundamentally different from using cheats; AI won’t win battles for us, much less tamper with game statistics.

IT之家Aug 2026

攻击者可以读取甚至篡改这份在 DRAM 中的微码副本。

gōng jī zhě kě yǐ dòu qǔ shèn zhì cuàn gǎi zhè fèn zài D R A M zhōng de wēi mǎ fù běn .

An attacker can read or even tamper with this copy of the microcode stored in DRAM.

少数派Jun 2026

它不仅保护数据不被随意篡改,更保护了思考的原始性。

tā bù jǐn bǎo hù shǔ jù bù bèi suí yì cuàn gǎi , gēng bǎo hù le sī kǎo de yuán shǐ xìng .

Not only does it protect data from being tampered with at will, but it also safeguards the originality of thought.

UdnnewsindexApr 2026

...良和宋美龄都曾收藏的一幅画 雍正用它平息篡位丑闻估价6亿

. . . liáng hé sòng měi líng dōu céng shōu zàng de yī fú huà Yōng zhèng yòng tā píng xī cuàn wèi chǒu wén gū jià 6 yì

...A painting once owned by Liang and Soong Mei-ling; Yongzheng used it to quell a scandal involving an attempted coup; estimated value: 600 million

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

Is Perikatan Nasional Plotting Another Power Grab Amid the Global Crisis? Ng Ka-leung: The People Don’t Want to “Wave the White Flag” Again

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 篡 (cuàn) mean in Chinese?
篡 (cuàn) primarily means "to seize." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3293 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 篡 and 纂?
篡 (cuàn) and 纂 (zuǎn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 竹 vs 纟 (same 算 component).
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 the components of 篡?
篡 is composed of: 算 (phonetic), 厶 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱算厶 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
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

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.