犯 (fàn): to violate, to offend, to assault

犯 (fàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to violate.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 犭 (semantic) and 㔾 (phonetic). It ranks #767 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 犯 dog. Its radical form 犭 (dog) appears in many related characters such as 狗 (gǒu, dog), 猫 (māo, cat), 状 (zhuàng, (bound form) form).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to violate
  2. to offend
  3. to assault

Etymology & Origin

犯

pictophoneticdog

Decomposition: ⿰犭㔾 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
犯罪verbfàn zuìto commit a crime
罪犯nounzuì fàncriminal
犯人nounfàn rénconvict
嫌犯nounxián fàncriminal suspect
冒犯verbmào fànto offend
嫌疑犯nounxián yí fàna suspect
杀人犯nounshā rén fànmurderer
疑犯nounyí fàna suspect
囚犯nounqiú fànprisoner
侵犯verbqīn fànto infringe on
犯规verbfàn guīto break the rules
犯法verbfàn fǎto break the law
逃犯nountáo fànescaped criminal
强奸犯nounqiáng jiān fànrapist
触犯verbchù fànto violate
100
Total compounds
38
As first character
54
As last character
8
As middle character

犯 appears in 100 compound words: 38 as the first character, 54 as the last, and 8 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 犯 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

罪zuì
0.73588,201 co-occurrences
囚qiú
0.69217,490 co-occurrences
侵qīn
0.62422,276 co-occurrences
嫌xián
0.59915,055 co-occurrences
疑yí
0.5079,238 co-occurrences
冒mào
0.4753,692 co-occurrences
缉jī
0.458374 co-occurrences
逃táo
0.4455,310 co-occurrences
贿huì
0.440870 co-occurrences
错cuò
0.4321,644 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (14)

暴力犯罪bào lì fàn zuìHSK 6+

violent crime

phrase
犯上作乱fàn shàng zuò luànHSK 6+

to rebel against the emperor (idiom)

phrase
犯罪集团fàn zuì jí tuánHSK 6+

crime syndicate

phrase
犯罪团伙fàn zuì tuán huǒHSK 6+

a criminal gang

phrase
犯罪现场fànzuì xiànchǎngHSK 6+

crime scene

noun
犯罪行为fànzuì xíngwéiHSK 6+

criminal act; criminal offense; actus reus

noun
互不侵犯hù bù qīn fànHSK 7+

non-aggression

phrase
明知故犯míngzhīgùfànHSK 6+

to knowingly do wrong

phrase
倾巢来犯qīng cháo lái fànHSK 7+

to turn out in force ready to attack (idiom)

phrase
秋毫无犯qiūháowúfànHSK 6+

to not even commit the slightest violation

phrase
知法犯法zhīfǎfànfǎHSK 6+

to know the law, but break it anyway

phrase
众怒难犯zhòng nù nán fànHSK 6+

(idiom) one cannot afford to incur public wrath; it is dangerous to incur the anger of the masses

phrase

Showing 12 of 14 idioms containing 犯.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了解犯字的来源,有助于理解中国文化。

le xiè fàn zì de lái yuán , yǒu zhù yú lǐ xiè zhōng guó wén huā .

Understanding the origin of the character "犯" (fàn) helps to comprehend Chinese culture.

LtnFeb 2026

...马影响中国战备?沈有忠:短期内大规模武力犯台机率持续下降

. . . mǎ yǐng xiǎng zhōng guó zhàn bèi ? 沈 yǒu zhōng : duǎn qī nèi dà guī mó wǔ lì fàn tái jī lǜ chí xù xià jiàng

... Horses affect China's combat readiness? Shen Youzhong: The probability of large-scale armed invasion of Taiwan continues to decline in the short term

三立新聞網Feb 2026

天公生8大禁忌曝光!触犯整年恐衰到底

tiān gōng shēng 8 dà jīn jì pù guāng ! chù fàn zhěng nián kǒng shuāi dào de

Tiangongsheng's 8 taboos exposed! I am afraid that it will decline to the end of the whole year

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

智谱认GLM-5大模型犯三错误

zhì pǔ rèn G L M 5 dà mó xíng fàn sān cuò wù

Zhipu recognizes that the GLM-5 model made three mistakes

TvbsFeb 2026

...影展得奖名单/得奖者狠呛政府“以色列的共犯” 《坠后真相》女星再封后

. . . yǐng zhǎn dé jiǎng míng dān dé jiǎng zhě hěn qiàng zhèng fǔ yǐ sè liè de gòng fàn zhuì hòu zhēn xiāng nǚ xīng zài fēng hòu

... Film festival winner list/winners choked the government "Israel's accomplices" "The truth after the fall" actress was re-sealed

公視新聞網 PnnFeb 2026

北港黄狗疑遭饲主高处丢下 警厘清其犯案动机

běi gǎng huáng gǒu yí zāo sì zhǔ gāo chǔ diū xià jǐng lí qīng qí fàn àn dòng jī

The Beigang yellow dog was suspected of being dropped by the owner at a height, and the police clarified his motive for committing the crime

Tatoeba

如果我是同志那又怎样?这能构成犯罪吗?

Rúguǒ wǒ shì tóngzhì nà yòu zěnyàng? zhè néng gòuchéng fànzuì ma?

And if I were gay, would that be a crime?

Tatoeba

他否认参与了犯罪。

Tā fǒurèn cānyù le fànzuì.

He denied having taken part in the crime.

Tatoeba

犯人趁着夜晚逃走了。

Fànrén chèn zhe yèwǎn táozǒu le.

The prisoner escaped under cover of night.

Tatoeba

粗心大意的人很容易犯错。

Cūxīndàyì de rén hěn róngyì fàncuò.

A careless person is apt to make mistakes.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 犭 (dog) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced fàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 犯 (fàn) mean in Chinese?
犯 (fàn) primarily means "to violate." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #767 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 犯 have?
犯 is written with 5 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 犯?
The radical associated with 犯 is 犭 (dog). This radical appears in many characters related to dog.
What are the components of 犯?
犯 is composed of: 犭 (semantic), 㔾 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰犭㔾 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 犯?
Common words with 犯 include: 犯罪 (fàn zuì, "to commit a crime"); 罪犯 (zuì fàn, "criminal"); 犯人 (fàn rén, "convict"); 嫌犯 (xián fàn, "criminal suspect"); 冒犯 (mào fàn, "to offend"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 犯 (fàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fàn: 反 (contrary), 范 (pattern), 饭 (meal, rice), 烦 (to feel vexed), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 犯 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 犯 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 犯 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.